Just a Boy
by DarkElements10
Summary: To the world he's a rocker with a dark past. Someone that could either be your best friend or your worst enemy. To Katie, he's just a boy, just one of her friends, and just so happened to be her crush. She knew he had a dark past, she just didn't think that she'd get caught up in the way that he dealt with it. Who knew that dating could be so hard? Katie/OC
1. Prologue

**_Prologue_**

Katie Knight tried not to judge on appearances. She wasn't immune to it though, her track record spoke for itself; James, Dak, Jett, Beau…almost any guy that was around her brother she thought was good looking. Those feelings usually went away when she figured out that there was something else going on behind a pretty face.

James had a tendency to be pretty vain and narcissistic; he ended up being more of a friend to her, a brother, more than anything else. She saved Dak from a hoard of fan-girls when she was just trying to get his autograph. In her opinion, if you save someone's life they can do whatever they want to pay you back, but you shouldn't ever start dating that person. It would be hero-worship and that's not what she wanted. So there went her potential relationship with him. Then there was Jett Stetson, she wasn't made of stone, he was really good looking. But he treated her brother like crap and no one treated her brother like crap and got away with it. Not where she was concerned.

And last but not least was Beau Lucy's ex-boyfriend. He was probably the best looking guy that had ever been to the PalmWoods and she had said that out loud, too. (Ok, it was partially to make fun of James who held that title proudly, but it was true). Up until she found out that he was a player and was cheating on Lucy when he was saying that he wanted to get back together with her. Each of those potential relationships didn't pan out…not that she was ultimately surprised. If she had tried to go out with any of them, she was sure that Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James would have put a quick end to it. (Though James constantly teased her about having a crush on him).

Katie wasn't stupid, none of those relationships would have worked because of many reasons. But that didn't stop her from having crushes. More importantly on one of her good friends, Patrick Jackson, now known as Patrick Jackson-McGuire. He was someone that she became friends with easily due to his outgoing personality despite his past. His parents died when he was six, he was taken into foster care by a man that exploited his and his siblings musical talent, creating their band and forcing them to make CD after CD for years. His foster father wasn't around anymore, he and his siblings had been adopted by their music producer and their life was getting better.

But she didn't think that she would ever get dragged into the way that he dealt with his past, rather than talking about it. If she knew what was coming…well, she didn't know what she would have done differently. He was her friend and she was going to help him when she could.

She didn't think that she would fall so deep along the way…

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**A/N: **Eh, short first chapter is short. While Katie/OC is the main pairing, there's also going to be others. Katie is the main-main character of this whole story but like in _Memories and Melodies _everyone is important. This is my second Katie story after _Two Is Better Than One _and discontinued _Do It All Again. _I hope I kept Katie's voice. Oh and there's gonna be a lot of Kendall/Katie brother-sister moments as well as with the other guys as well.

I don't know why, but I always find it kind of difficult to write a story about Katie because throughout the show's run, we didn't really ever get a grasp on what she was like since she was the only one not in the entertainment industry in some way. And she didn't interact with the guys other than to get them out of their mess. IDK, that's just my opinion.

Constructive Criticism is welcome. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	2. Fight

**.:Chapter 01:.**

* * *

Katie looked up from her laptop and wondered if she should grab her phone as it buzzed with a text. Whoever it was was going to get an earful from interrupting her Netflix time. She budgeted her assets well to be able to get and pay for her own Netflix so she wouldn't have to worry about the boys trying to mooch off of hers. Though if they asked nicely enough, she would log into the account for them on their computers so they could watch something.

She wasn't that heartless to leave them with nothing to do when they were on their tour bus or doing some quick appearances.

When Katie's phone buzzed again, she reached over and grabbed onto it, unlocking the screen so she could see who texted her. Seeing who it was, she quickly turned back to her computer and paused the movie that she was watching before bringing the phone to her face to see what the text read.

**Pat: **You doing anything right now? I need your help.

Katie's heart sank a little when she read the text, though she was excited too. She knew what was going to happen and regretted it each and every time she went. But…Patrick was a good friend of hers and she'd be lying if she didn't want to go just for the purpose of spending some time along with him. It was hard to be alone with anyone in their group of friends, there was always someone around to talk to, but it was hard to be able to do just that sometimes.

Katie hesitated a moment before she replied to the text. She slid her phone into her jeans pocket and closed her laptop. Sliding off of her bed, she quickly pulled on her shoes and grabbed her key to the PalmWoods and her purse before leaving her room and going to the main area of the apartment. She looked around, noticing that her mother and Kendall weren't there. That was good; she didn't have to worry about having them ask a lot of questions.

_And these three are such idiots I can give them the runaround in seconds. _Katie went over to the kitchen and opened the cabinet under the sink, pulling out the first aid kit. Placing it on the counter, she opened it and pulled out a few bandages out as well as anti-septic wipes. She quickly shoved them into her purse before replacing the first-aid kit under the sink.

"Hey Katie, what're the bandages and stuff for?" Carlos asked, noticing her movements.

"Just in case," Katie replied calmly. She shouldered her purse and rounded the kitchen counter before going to stand next to the boys. "You never know whenever someone's going to need first aid."

Logan smiled and nodded. "Good thinking, Katie." His gaze shifted to James and Carlos. "Being proactive like that can save you a lot of grief later."

"You're _still_ mad about the time we used your bandages to make ourselves into mummies?" James's upper lip curled as he leaned forward and patted Logan on the knee. "I think it's time that you _let it go_." He turned back to Katie, who had taken the time to start inching towards the door. "Where are you going?"

Katie turned back around to face him, trying to figure out the best excuse. She could tell them the truth, but then she would be breaking a promise that she had made to a friend. _But maybe that'd be a good thing, if I did tell. Then the guys could help him instead of them always keeping the secret. I thought that was why we were all friends, because we could help each other. _Katie forced herself to roll her eyes, putting up a façade, before addressing James. "Please, I'm just going to hang out. There's nothing to freak out about."

"Maybe not, but Mama Knight and Kendall would feel better if we could actually tell her where you where," Carlos pointed out.

"I'm just going to hang out in the PalmWoods Park." Katie winced. She hated to lie to them as much as she hated to lie to Kendall and her mother. But she didn't feel like she had a choice. Forcing a disarming smile, she waved. "I'll see you guys later!" Katie quickly left the apartment and hurried to the lobby and out the doors before any of them could stop her.

Glancing over her shoulder to be sure that she wasn't being followed, Katie let out a sigh of relief. She walked out of the PalmWoods Park and started off down the street. She had only walked for a couple of minutes before she reached a playground. But instead of seeing little kids running around with their parents lounging on benches, talking to each other about the horrors and joyful moments of parenthood, there were a bunch of teenagers milling around, most of them were by the giant, dome shaped monkey bars.

"Hey Katie!"

Katie turned around to see Patrick walking up to her, a drawstring bag on his back. Katie smiled and walked over to meet him halfway.

At sixteen years old, a year and a half older than her, Patrick stood at five feet, nine inches, easily towering over her. With his black hair and dark blue eyes, he could quickly get anyone's attention. One look at him and you could tell that he was a rocker. He had been in the music industry for years and his own band had gone from light pop-rock music to darker, harsher tones of alternative, punk, and hard rock music. Many that first saw him would assume that he was the stereotype of the rock lifestyle, but anyone that knew him could easily say otherwise. With the blonde highlights in his hair, an ever-present smile, and an overall friendly disposition, he was the most outgoing of him and his four brothers and sisters, who made up the rest of the band.

Though they were in different parts of the music industry, Big Time Rush being in pop, and the DarkElements being rock, they had been contracted to help Big Time Rush break into the music industry when the boys had first gotten to LA and things snowballed from there.

"Hey, how's it going?" Katie asked once she reached him.

"Not bad." Patrick angled his head towards the dome and the two started to walk to join the group of teenagers that were huddled around, talking and laughing. "Nothing really to complain about."

_Liar. _Katie pressed her lips together. _We wouldn't be here if there wasn't something bothering you._

"What about you?" Patrick's question broke Katie out of her thoughts. "What's been going on with you guys?"

"Ah, mostly been listening to the guys complain about Gustavo, of course," Katie replied with a wave of her hand. "They really want to start their next album, but Gustavo says that they have to spend more time promoting _Elevate _before jumping right into the next one."

"I can understand that though," Patrick said. He gave his famous lopsided smile. "They're just excited to get back on the road again, I guess. Though, I think right now they're happier being able just to hang out at the PalmWoods without having to go to school anymore."

"Lucky them." Katie agreed. "I think I'd rather be homeschooled than go to the PalmWoods School, but you know how Mom is with homework and stuff."

She smiled, remembering how badly she had wanted to go to the PalmWoods School when they had first moved in. She didn't even really know why she wanted to go there so badly. She could understand their reasons; it was a million times better than having to be stuck at Rocque Records all day. But she wanted to go to the School because it was the only thing that was normal to her. She had gone to a normal school back when she was in Minnesota, had been ripped away from her life to go to LA, and then she was going to be homeschooled?

Wasn't happening.

"Hey, hey, everyone, I think we got a challenger here!" A tall teenage boy, as Katie knew to be named Jared called when he spotted Patrick and Katie walking over to the group. He nodded at Patrick. "Are you challenging Derrick today?" He motioned over to a boy roughly around Patrick's height, his head completely buzzed. He had a condescending smile on his face as he looked Patrick up and down.

"If he's the only one that's going through with it today, then why not?" Patrick shrugged. His normally friendly eyes flashed with an emotion Katie couldn't place. "I came out here to do this, so let's do this." The audience cheered and started to gather around the dome, wanting to get a good spot to watch.

Katie sighed and followed Patrick to a clear area. He pulled his drawstring bag off of his back and opened it. Dropping it to his feet, he unraveled the tape that he pulled out and started to wrap it around his palms and knuckles, flexing his fingers as he did so. As if sensing Katie's anxiety, he looked up and flashed her a smile, causing her to drop her gaze to her feet.

"I still don't think this is a good idea," Katie said.

"Well, then it's a good thing that you're not the one that's doing it, then, isn't it?" Patrick replied. He gave his famous lopsided smile as he finished taping his hands. He flexed his fingers before moving them up by the side of his face and punching out in front of him twice. He flexed his fingers again. "Ok, I think I'm ready."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Katie crossed her arms over her chest as she watched him take off his shirt, socks, and shoes, resting them in a neat pile on the ground. "It's not very smart."

"When have I ever been one to do something smart?"

"You know what I mean!"

"So do you."

Katie huffed as her eyes scanned the circle. The teenagers were all talking excitedly with each other as Derrick slid into the dome. Just like Patrick, he was only wearing his shorts, his hands taped up the same way. Patrick grabbed onto the metal bars of the dome and slid his seek body into it, his feet lightly hitting the dusty ground. Katie's eyes moved over his body. Having been in the band for years, and being one that personally liked to work out as much as James, it did wonders for his physique. Not so much that he had guns as big as James, but it was still impressive. Katie's eyes moved over the tattoos that spread across Patrick's shoulders.

She was a teenage girl, but she wasn't made of stone. He was a good friend of hers, but he found him to be very attractive. SO much so that there were times where she could be shy around him, as annoying as it was to her. Especially since he spent so much time around the PalmWoods with his brother and his friends and their bands usually did a lot of appearances together.

Patrick turned back towards Katie, resting his arms on the wall of the dome. "I'm going to be fine," he said confidently. "I always am."

"How do you know that this time?" Katie pushed her feelings aside, hoping that he didn't catch her checking him out. She raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that he's not going to kick your ass this time?"

"Because I just know, Katie, ok?" Patrick's easygoing mask cracked for a minute.

Katie snorted. "You know you can be as stubborn as an ass, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm a cute, ass." Patrick winked at her before pulling off the rings that he wore and handed them to her through the hole in the bars. Katie took them, blushing as his fingers brushed over hers. Patrick then turned to Derrick and Jared, who had called for their attention.

"What are you betting?" Jared, who now seemed to be working as the referee asked, looking at both boys. He nodded as Patrick took off his lightning bolt necklace and Jared took out a pocket knife. He walked over to both bots and grabbed the items from them, holding onto it for safe keeping. "Ok, we got the normal rules for this fight. Shake hands."

Patrick and Derrick walked forward and grabbed each other's hands, shaking it firmly. They then backed up a few paces, waiting for the signal to go. Once the call was sounded, screaming and shouting immediately rose from those that were watching as Derrick and Patrick started to circle the dome, waiting for the perfect opportunity to make the first strike.

Katie reached up and grabbed onto the metal rungs of the monkey bars and held her breath as she watched the fight go on. Patrick and Derrick continued to circle each other, keeping their eyes on each other. Derrick made the first move, a sweeping blow to hit Patrick in the jaw but Patrick ducked and shot out his foot, kicking Derrick in the shin. He took the opportunity, and Derrick's stumble, to jab his left fist into Derrick's side.

Derrick grunted and backed up a few paces, scowling. He shot forward and managed a hit to Patrick's eye before he swung up his other arm and caught him in the jaw. Patrick fell onto his side, but got back to his feet using a kip-up. He used the momentum to spin on the balls of his left foot and drive his right one into Derrick's side. It was a move that if executed well, wouldn't harm the opponent, but knock the wind out of them, effectively bringing them to their knees and out of commission for a while.

It was one of Patrick's signature moves as Katie had noticed from the fights that he had challenged people to. She was surprised that no one had caught on, but she wasn't going to hold her breath. Most of the people he fought against would just want to take him out and claim his prize, no strategy was ever used. Not that she figured there would be, most guys fought just to prove that they were the stronger one. It was when the girls fought that she could see a plan formulating in their heads as the fights went on.

_Either way it's so stupid, that he'd rather do this than talk. _Katie shook her head, turning away from the fight. _I wonder what Kendall would do if one of the other guys was doing this. _She only turned back around when she heard the sound of someone grunting and something dropping to the sound. Then she could hear Jared's shouting rise over the cheers that rose in a crescendo.

Katie let out a relieved sigh when she saw Patrick standing up, looking otherwise unharmed apart from the bruising and Derrick kneeling on the ground, an arm wrapped around his stomach. Patrick reached out and grabbed onto Derrick's arm, hauling him to his feet, before giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder.

Derrick gave a weak smile.

"Winner!" Jared lifted Patrick's arm over his head before giving him his necklace and Derrick's pocketknife. Patrick slid his necklace back on over his head and climbed out of the dome, heading over to Katie. He dropped the pocketknife into his drawstring bag and started to pull on his socks.

"Why do you ask me to come to these things if I never really help you?" Katie's question immediately got his attention.

Patrick shrugged, scratching his bare chest. "Because of the support," he replied. "It's good to have someone on my side."

"What about your brothers and sisters?" Katie continued to press. "Do they know?"

She normally didn't get anything out of him when it came to this…activity. He didn't talk about it unless he wanted her to go with him to watch. Otherwise, it was as if it never happened. But that wasn't that uncommon; the Jacksons were never ones to tell anyone what was really going on in their lives because they were too preoccupied with wanting to help their friends and whatever problems they were having.

Patrick snorted.

"Of course they do, sweetheart, they help to make sure that Ronan doesn't catch on to what I'm doing." He bobbed his head. "Of course they try to talk me out of it, but you know us Jacksons, we can be the most stubborn people you'll ever meet." He then flashed a charming smile. "And the most attractive."

Katie blushed a little. "You spend too much time with James," she remarked.

"I get that a lot," Patrick commented. He held out his hand for his rings and Katie pulled them out of her pocket. She moved to drop them into his hand, but he moved up his other one, placing it on top of hers and held it between the two of his. "But seriously, thanks for always coming with me, Katie. It means a lot."

Katie willed herself not to blush harder as she pulled her hands away, trying to downplay the whole situation. Though she knew that for the rest of the day she would be able to think of nothing but the feeling of her hand between his. "Yeah, yeah. I just hope that you figure out whether or not it's all worth it because one day you're gonna lose."

"There's just one problem with that," Patrick said as he grabbed his shirt and pulled it back on. He started to pull on his shoes, lifting his head to look at Katie. "I never lose."

* * *

**A/N: **I'm thinking of putting this all in Katie's POV like I did for _Two is better than one_, but idk, I still have to decide. First few chapters are kinda short on purpose; they'll get longer as the story goes on. The whole story is more lighthearted than this chapter was, but I wanted you all to know right away what Patrick was doing. Now, as to why, you don't know exactly yet, I'll update again soon.

Constructive Criticism is welcome. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	3. Dark Cloud

**.:Chapter 03:.**

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"Hey," Patrick called as he walked through the front door of his house. He twisted to the side, wincing at the pain that shot through his body, and opened the closet door, tossing his drawstring bag inside. He watched as it landed behind the vacuum cleaner before closing the door.

"Hey, how was the bookstore?" Ronan, his father, called from the kitchen. Patrick could hear the sound of water running and pots and pans banging together. He let out a sigh of relief, figuring that he could get up the stairs and to his room without having to answer any questions. Questions would just cause things to fall apart and that was the last thing that he needed.

Not after what happened before.

"Boring," Patrick called back, moving towards the stairs. "I mean, it's a bookstore, how much fun am I going to have there?" He snorted. "The only reason I went was because of that stupid book I needed for science."

"Your grade in science proves that you need that book," Ronan replied.

"Well, you home school us, what does that tell you?" Patrick realized that he made a mistake when the water shut off. "Uh, just kidding, Ronan." He laughed nervously, backing towards the stairs even faster. "But speaking of school, I have some homework that I need to finish, so I'll just go and do it right now."

Patrick turned and sprinted up the stairs as fast as he could, running to his room and closing the door behind him. His twin brother, Noah, looked up from the book that he was reading. He set it down, glancing at his brother, before climbing down the side of his top bunk. "What happened?" He crossed his arms over his chest, looking his older brother up and down. "Did you win?"

"What kind of question is that?" Patrick reached into his pocket and pulled out the pocket knife, handing it over to his brother. He went over to the mirror that was set up on the wall, over their desk, and leaned into it, checking his reflection. He could see that his jaw was already swollen and stung. It was bound to be worse by the next day.

"Don't you think that you're becoming a little too…cocky?" Noah flipped the pocket knife in his hand. "Especially since you're bound to lose at some point." He bobbed his head back and forth. "And if that happens, I'm pretty sure they're not going to go easy on your face."

Patrick gave a hollow laugh before sitting down on his bed, ducking his head so that it wouldn't hit the underside of Noah's. "That'd be the least of my problems."

"You missed another session with Dr. Angelo," Noah continued.

Patrick shrugged.

He liked Dr. Angelo just fine; he was the best therapist that you could have to talk to. He didn't act like you were a kid, he treated you like an equal. And he was one of the only people outside of his family that he could talk to about his abuse by the hands of his foster father. He figured that he would have been over it by that point, it ended two years ago. But things were still hard for him, he still had nightmares, he still flinched whenever someone moved too fast, and there was hardly a day where he didn't think of the worst of it. But he wasn't the person that liked to talk, talking bored him. He would rather do something else to get his mind off of it.

Fighting was something that he never thought that he would ever do. He had seen his sisters, Riley and Ruben, get into fights a lot when they had fallen into the wrong crowd back in their home of Sydney, Australia. He had waited night after night when they came back with cuts and bruises and only had things get worse when Robert would get angry and beat them up even more. Their band was a good distraction, helping Big Time Rush was a good distraction. But it followed him like a dark cloud, hovering over his head as long as it wanted.

He just wanted it to go away.

"Riles is waiting to bandage you up," Noah said, tossing the pocketknife to the side. He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the ladder on their bunk beds. He studied Patrick. "And we have an appearance with Big Time Rush tomorrow, so you're going to have to find a way to hide everything."

"Like I'm not used to it at this point," Patrick said. He stretched out across his bed, resting his arms above him. "It's weird…the guys have helped us with so much stuff, but I still can't ever tell them anything that's going on." He shrugged. "If they found out about this…I don't even know if they'd still want to be my friend."

"They'll probably just try to talk you out of it," Noah said. "Like Katie did."

"Yeah, well, Katie didn't have to find out, but she did." Patrick pursed his lips. "And if I have my way, the guys, Ronan, and Mama Knight aren't going to find out either." He cracked his knuckles. "Besides, Kendall would kill me if he found out, and maybe James too, especially considering how overprotective they can be about her."

Noah smiled.

"D'you think I should stop bringing her along?" Patrick's eyebrows lowered. "I mean, it is kinda dangerous. I mean, she can hold her own, but it's good to have her around in case I need an alibi or something if someone asks where I was."

"Sure, that's the only reason." Noah rolled his eyes.

"One of the main reasons," Patrick corrected him. _Of course there aren't many others, but still. _He ran a hand through his hair. "Relax, buddy, it'll come good."

He was just going to have to deal with it himself, like he usually did when he didn't want anyone else to worry. It wasn't like that was a bad thing; it just meant that he was going to be able to spend more time with Katie.

And the thought alone made him smile.

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**A/N: **Chapters for this story will be longer starting with the next one. This one was short because I just wanted to show what was going on with Patrick's secret at home. There'll be more Patie moments as the story goes on, of course.

Constructive Criticism is welcome. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	4. High Expectations

**.:Chapter 04:.**

* * *

One of the things that Katie didn't understand about the entertainment industry was how people could care so much about their idols that they would start to scream, cry, and hyperventilate. She never thought that she would ever get to that point of being a fan of someone and she was proud to say that she still didn't. However, that much couldn't be said for the hoards of fans that were waiting for her brother and his friends at the Staples Center for the meet and greet portion of their appearance.

It was actually a really good ploy by Gustavo. They were going to do a meet and greet, take pictures, answer some questions, do a quick acoustic session, and then they were going to watch the LA Lakers game that they had been invited to. Of course they had to wear nothing but the team colors, but they were able to get free tickets to a game that was hard to come by. It was a win-win to situation for everyone and she got to go along for the ride. Not that she was only using her brother for his fame, but the perks were pretty good at times.

Even from where she was sitting backstage, she could hear the screaming and the cheers of 'Big Time Rush 'or 'DE' or whatever variation of the Jacksons' band name they could come up with. It was enough to make her swear off of being a fan for the rest of her life. She even noticed that there were a couple of ambulances and medical personnel stationed by just in case someone had a panic attack or they fainted. She heard of that happening at a Justin Bieber concert, but never expected it with _Big Time Rush_. Not that she wasn't proud of the success that they made or the popularity that was still rising.

But still.

Even _she _knew that her brother wasn't so supposed to be cried over.

_Or to even be considered smart, _Katie rolled her eyes as she watched Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James throw marshmallows at each other, their mouths wide open, trying to catch them on their tongues. She at least managed a laugh when Carlos and Logan had run into each other, effectively screaming in disgust when their tongues managed to touch. Kendall and James pointed and laughed as Carlos grabbed onto the bottom of his shirt and started to wipe off his tongue with it.

"You guys are so gross." Katie couldn't help but laugh a little. Her hands moved down to the VIP badge around her neck. She started to twist it around and around.

"Oh come on." James turned to her with a grin and a mischievous glint in his eye. "Soon you're going to find the guy that you'd love to do nothing but make out with, tongues and all." Katie's face screwed up in disgust and Kendall turned to James with a thunderous expression on his face. James held up his hands, taking a step back away from him. "I'm kidding! Relax."

"You better be kidding," Kendall warned, raising an eyebrow. He turned back to Katie. "Making out is a _bad thing_, Katie. Do you hear me?"

"So how come you like it so much?" Katie shot back with a smirk.

Kendall mimicked her smirk. "That's because I make it good."

Katie rolled her eyes again as Kendall high-fived James, Logan, and Carlos, who all burst out laughing. She crossed her legs, drumming her fingers on the arms of the leather couch that she was sitting in. She twisted her mouth to the side watching as the guys started to shove each other, laughing and talking about who knows what. Nothing that was particularly interesting to her or what she could use for blackmail against them.

_Boring. _Katie got to her feet with a flourish. "I'm going to go find Mom or get something to eat or whatever." She started to leave the room. Kendall grabbed her arm before she could leave and waked her into a corner. "I know how not to talk to strangers, Big Brother, don't worry." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him condescendingly. "I even remember all of those different fighting tactics that you taught me in case someone tried to grab me too." She raised an eyebrow. "If anyone thinks that they can get one over on me, then they're sadly mistaken."

"And trust me, Baby Sister, I'm glad that I entrusted that skill in you," Kendall said with a smile. "But I wanted to talk to you about something." He crossed his arms over his chest, looking at her seriously. "What James said was true. You _are_ growing up and you're getting to the point where you're probably becoming interested in boys"-Kendall held up a hand as Katie started to groan, shifting uncomfortably-"And that's perfectly fine. And you're probably interested in going out on dates with them and wanting to…um…kiss them-"

"Do we _have _to talk about this now?" Katie hissed through gritted teeth, scratching the side of her neck.

He continued as if he didn't hear her. "And that's perfectly fine. But I realized that there are times where you might get pressured into something that you don't want to do and I want to be sure that you know how to say 'no' and how to handle yourself." Katie gave him a 'duh' look and he crossed his arms over his chest, looking the most serious she had ever seen him. "I'm just trying to make sure that you're ok, Katie. Don't act like I'm being stupid. I know how guys think and I know that most of them only want one thing, and I want to be sure that my Baby Sister is safe, knows how to defend herself, and know what she's doing."

Katie bowed her head, smiling a little.

She knew how protective Kendall could be and most times it got on her nerves, but his heart was in the right place. He was the one that helped her give her first steps; her first clear word was 'brother', he taught her how to tie her shoes and how to spit long distances. He was the one that helped her with her homework and dutifully walked her to and from school without complaining. And he continued to do those things the older he got, the more friends he made, and getting the job at Sherwood. He was her father figure and brother all rolled in one, he was her best friend and her confidant. The two would get into a lot of trouble whenever their mother would leave them alone and there were still many things that they hadn't told her that they had done while she was gone.

Kendall meant so much to her, no matter how much she ragged on him and his friends. She hoped he knew that, because she didn't tell him often. Kendall would always tell her that he loved her, whether or not it was to get her to help him with whatever plan he needed, if he was feeling especially emotional or broke down, or if he just wanted to say it in general. She did take him for granted sometimes and she did genuinely feel bad about it. But it was hard for her to do, to show anyone her emotions other than annoyance, disgust, or excitement.

She hoped that he didn't get too bummed out by it.

"Don't you mean 'knows what she's doing'?" Katie corrected him. "Like, I know what I'm doing?"

"No, _I _want to know everything you're doing, that way I can kick the ass of whoever is dumb enough to hurt you," Kendall said. He gave a devilish smile, causing Katie to laugh. He reached out and tweaked her nose. "And you know that I'd do it with the other guys right behind me."

"Yeah, I know," Katie agreed. She bowed her head, lowering her voice. "And I know I don't say it a lot, but thanks." She lifted her head, brushing her loose hair behind her shoulders with a quick swing of her head. "I mean, I guess I'm stuck with you, so I might as well enjoy it." Kendall smiled and Katie stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his waist in a hug. He hugged her back. "Kendall?"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't _ever_ talk to me about this ever again unless I ask first," Katie said, the side of her head still pressed to Kendall's body. "Cause it is so embarrassing and really creepy."

Kendall laughed. "Sure, Baby Sister." He patted her on the back and let go.

Katie flashed him a smile before leaving the dressing room walking quickly, in case Logan, Carlos, or James asked what they were talking about. She turned down a long hallway and wandered off towards where she last heard her mom was going to be. Gustavo had said something about making sure that they had their schedule for the next upcoming weeks.

_This must be the only time that Gustavo isn't screaming. It's going to be harder to find him now. _Katie shoved her hands into her jeans pockets as she continued down the winding hallways, waving and nodding at people that passed her. They were the same crew that went around with Big Time Rush ever since they started and they had all became a bit of a family when it came to them going on tours or having productions that were going to be done.

They were really good at what they did, and they were also really bad at poker so she could easily make some money while she was waiting around for the guys to finish their shows and everything. _I wonder if any of them have played Texas Hold Em'._

"Look out!"

Katie turned at the sing-song voice and laughed when she saw Sydney, Riley, and Rhuben heading her way. Sydney and Rhuben were on roller blades and Riley was on a skateboard. They all slowed to a stop when they reached her.

"Are you guys allowed to skate or blade or whatever back here?" Katie brushed her hair behind her ear.

"Probably not," Rhuben said. She gave an impish smile, her eyes flashing. "But of course we'd do it anyway."

"Of course," Katie agreed. "You guys wouldn't be you if you did everything that you were told. Which makes me wonder whether or not the security is chasing after you guys already."

"We already out ran them," Sydney said. He exchanged glances with his sisters as they smiled mischievously. It was times like these that Katie wondered if they really did live up to their image. Sometimes it was funny to see; other times she wondered how they got the image as they could be complete opposites from it. But they had always been great friends to her, so she didn't really dwell on it.

"Are you looking for someone, Kid?" Riley stomped on the end of her skateboard and flipped it up into her hand. "You actually kinda look like a sitting duck out here."

"No one in particular," Katie said, hoping that she sounded convincing. She had wanted to see if she could find Patrick, to see if he was doing ok after his fight the day before. It wasn't a big deal; she just wanted to see if her friend was ok. That's not what her sweaty palms were telling her, but she was doing her best to hide it. "I was looking for my Mom actually. Her and Gustavo and Ronan and Kelly."

"Something wrong, Kates?" Rhuben crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at her seriously. Katie shuffled her feet, hoping that she wasn't looking right through her, as she had a tendency to do. "Anything that we can help you with?"

"No, just looking for her," Katie said with a shrug.

"Uh-huh," Riley didn't look convinced. Her lips slowly curled into a smirk. "By the way I almost forgot, Pat said that he was looking for ya." Her smirk widened when she saw Katie trying to hide the excitement that was working its way onto her face. "Looking for your Mum, huh?"

"That's not fair." Kaite pouted. "You tricked me."

"It's not tricking when it's just a very sneak way of going around to make someone fall for it," Sydney defended his eldest sister. Katie's raised eyebrow made him laugh a little, holding up his hands. "That's just a nice way of saying that she got you hook, line, and sinker, Katie."

"Gee, thanks." Katie rolled her eyes.

"There you guys are."

Katie turned around to see Ronan walking down the hallway towards her. She turned back to the Jacksons and was surprised to see that they looked a little nervous as their father headed towards them. _What's that about? _Katie smiled and waited for Ronan to reach them. "Hey, what's up?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing, actually," Ronan said, his eyes immediately moving towards his kids. "I just went to your guys's dressing room and Noah said that you were all at catering. Then I went to catering and you weren't there." His eyes shifted over the three in front of him. "Where's Patrick?"

"No clue," Rhuben said quickly, her feet starting to tap up and down.

Katie looked at Rhuben and immediately saw the guilt that flashed through her eyes, no matter how quickly it went away. She knew that she and her siblings were good liars, probably some of the best. They had been that good if they managed to keep their abuse a secret for years. Getting to know them though, she knew that they absolutely _hated _to lie to Ronan. He was their friend from the very beginning that they had made their band, and he was the one that had sheltered them and gave them food whenever Robert didn't so they were as open to him as they possibly could be.

_What would they need to lie to him about right now? They're just getting ready for an appearance and then going to watch a basketball game, it's not really that big a deal. _Katie looked back and forth between the family members.

"You might want to try the dressing room again, you know that he likes to sleep off an empty stomach," Sydney suggested.

Ronan nodded slowly, He looked over his kids skeptically before slowly turning on his heel and walking away. Katie watched him. She looked over when she felt a hand placed on her shoulder and saw Riley standing next to her, a serious look on her face. Katie was a bit nervous at that point. She looked up to Riley as a big sister and could admit that she admired her in the way of a role model. She knew that Riley wouldn't hesitate to tell her (or anyone for that matter) her opinion on something. It could be scathing at times, but she could also be really helpful and sweet.

But at this moment in time, Katie didn't know what she was going to get; a glare and a warning to mind her own business or a smile and a word of advice? She licked her lips, shuffling her feet as she waited.

"If you're looking for Patrick, he's up in the stands watching the Lakers practice." Riley glanced at Rhuben and Sydney and tilted her head, and the three of them moved around Katie and started off down the hall again.

Katie nodded back. She took a deep breath, running her hands over each other before she started off towards the entrance to the stands. Her legs burned once she got there, having had to go up numerous flights of stairs. When she reached the entrance to the stands, her eyes scanned the empty seats. One part of her was freaking out; basketball was the only sport that she watched and while she didn't have a favorite team, being able to see the Lakers play was going to be amazing. Another part of her was worried.

If the Jacksons had lied to Ronan, then it was a big deal and possibly something was wrong. Not that she or the other guys would know, the Jacksons were really good at keeping their private business their private business if they didn't want anyone to worry. Katie's eyes scanned the bleachers again, frowning when she didn't see Patrick.

"Lookin' for me?"

With a jump and a slight shriek that echoed over the arena, Katie whirled around to find Patrick standing behind her. Despite it being ninety degrees that day, he was wearing a black sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, a shadow being cast over his face. He smirked, his lip piercings moving along with his mouth. Katie's eyes followed the movement and she quickly shook her head.

_Way to be a girl, Katie! _She scolded herself. Wiping her hands on her pants legs, she studied Patrick. "Hey, are you ok?"

Patrick's right eyebrow quirked. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Uh probably because you got your ass kicked yesterday," Katie replied. At the offended look on Patrick's face, she immediately knew that she had said the wrong thing. "I mean, you didn't get your _ass _kicked, but it looked like it hurt."

"So you were looking at my butt?" Patrick turned his head to the side, looking like he was about to laugh.

Katie wanted to scream in frustration and embarrassment. It didn't help that she started to blush, causing him to smile wider. So Katie reached out and punched him on the arm as hard as she could. He merely rubbed his arm, as if he had just gotten a bug bite.

"Carefully, I got a bruise." He finally lifted the hood of his sweatshirt and dropped it down his back. His face didn't seem puffy at all, but it could have been due to some makeup. He dropped into a seat and she sat down next to him. "I had enough make up to cover my face, but my arm was a goner. Thankfully I'm used to the heat so Ronan didn't question me wearing a sweatshirt."

"I was going to ask about that," Katie remarked. She twisted a loose thread at the bottom of her shirt, trying not to look at him. "But I wasn't sure if there really was a reason." She crossed her legs at the ankle. "Ronan was looking for you."

"I know I was trying to stay out of the dressing room so he wouldn't see the bruise and ask about it." He shrugged, bringing a hand up to his mouth and starting to pull on his piercings. "I didn't want to try and lie, he can see right through it, since we don't do it often to him."

"So why don't you just tell him what's going on? Instead of lying?"

"He wouldn't understand my reasons," Patrick said simply.

Katie was silent, thinking that he would continue, but he slouched in his seat, shoving his hands into his sweatshirt pocket, not offering up any more information. The two sat in silence for a few moments, the sounds of the Lakers practicing bounced off the walls around them, the sounds of the screaming fans outside was faint in the background.

Now she understood how the industry was so…misunderstood. People that you thought were happy, could be the most unhappy. People that seemed that they were so successful could have their money being stolen by people right and left. There were so many pitfalls and traps that people could fall into, so many lies and so much deceit, she wondered why anyone would want to get into it in the first place if it wasn't for the fame. She didn't want to be in that part of the industry, she wanted to handle the business and do it all in a clean and ethical way. Not have someone worry about whether or not she was going to screw them over.

Katie studied Patrick, his handsome face, which was usually in a expression of cheerfulness and excitement was set in stone. A solemn expression of anxiety. He alternately moved his hand from pulling on his lip piercing to running his hand over his lightning necklace. The same one that he had waged in the fight against Derrick.

Dhe decided to change the subject, not wanting things to get too tense. "Riles said that you were looking for me?"

"Yeah, I was bored." Patrick crossed his legs the other way.

Katie's heart sank. _He was only looking for me because he was bored? _She frowned, not sure what to make of it. He could say stupid things some times, but knew that he wasn't one to be purposefully insensitive. But…he was a guy and they did stupid things without thinking about it first all the time. Maybe he just blurted it out. _Don't dwell on it, Katie. You'll just make yourself upset._

Katie adopted a look of frustration. "Oh, so you only want my company when you're bored?"

"Mm, pretty much." Patrick turned to look at her, smiling once more. "I mean, that's really the only thing that you're good for." Katie let out a sound of outrage and shoved his shoulder, being careful not to his hit bruise. He batted her away easily, like a little mosquito. "Relax, KK, I'm kidding. I enjoy your company."

"Oh." Katie blushed, looking at her hands. "I enjoy your company too."

"You should, you get to spend time with a devilishly handsome young man." Patrick's beam of pride caused Katie to roll her eyes. She was doing a lot of that that day.

"You've been spending too much time with James."

"I get that a lot. But I take it as a compliment, sweetie."

Katie laughed, trying to keep from blushing even harder. Not that she'd ever say it out loud, but she really liked it whenever he called her sweetie. Sure, he said it to basically every girl he knew or came into contact with, but…she hoped she wasn't over thinking when she thought that he said it to her in a different way than everyone else did. Patrick looked at Katie and when she looked up at him, he quickly turned away, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"So are you excited for the show tonight?" She mentally slapped herself, hating how her voice quivered with nervousness.

"I'm just glad it's not a huge production," Patrick admitted.

Katie frowned in confusion. "You don't like doing big shows? You always look like you're having a blast."

"I am." Patrick crossed his arms, now they and his legs were crossed in a pose of self defense. "I do." He let out a short breath. "I don't know, it's hard to explain. We're taking a break from music right now and as much as I like it…I don't know how much fun it is for me anymore. I can barely tolerate day after day or working. The years before we got here, in Lala Land, all we did was practice, put our music, and tour. Two of our tours took a year each, with a few breaks here and there, especially since we were so young." He shrugged. "I don't know, I guess it kind of burned me out. Which was why I didn't put up a big fight about taking the year off."

"Because you're tired," Katie reasoned. "I get what you're saying."

"I don't think I've ever been so tired," Patrick admitted. He shifted in his seat. "All we did was work, work with the guys, and go to sleep. Over and over, day after day, for two years, that was our plan. That was out set schedule." Katie could see his upper lip starting to curl. "And while we all love music, we could all see that each of us weren't having as much fun as we used to. That was one of our big things about staying in the game, if we weren't having fun, then we were going to stop. If one of us wanted to drop out, we were going to stop. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James helped us find a bit of fun in it again, but we were still tired.

"So when Ronan suggested we take the year off, we agreed to it pretty quickly, which I think surprised him. We all needed to figure out what it was that we wanted. It really didn't take long for us to realize that we wanted to keep going with our band, but wanted the chance to be able to experience things we hadn't before. To have more time to hang out with friends, to goof off and do what we wanted"-his eyes shifted for a moment-"to find someone special. So while we didn't stop writing music and we still record some demos, we put all of the music stuff to the back burner so it's not as important. So its been giving me time to reflect on what I've been going through." He licked his lips. "People call me stupid all the time, but then in our music and getting to know me personally they see that there's a lot more to me than trying to make people laugh and I really like that."

"So what about your music?" Katie grabbed his attention. "What about when you go back to recording and writing and touring all the time?"

"It won't be as big a deal to me then," Patrick said. He had a knowing smile on his face, as if he was thinking about something funny.

"Why's that?" Katie's voice was almost a whisper.

"Because I found something that makes it all worth while."

Katie nodded, leaning back in her seat, focusing on the players. That way she could think of something else and not get her hopes up too high.

* * *

**A/N: **Whew, finally a longer chapter. Not much happened in this one, but I needed a cute Patie moment and that's what drove this whole chapter. The next one picks up where this one left off, but then there's going to be a time jump so not all of the chapters are in the same days/time frame. What did you think?

Constructive Criticism is welcome. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	5. Disappointment

**.:Chapter 05:.**

* * *

"Patrick…..Patrick…..Patrick….Pat! Patpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpatpat-"

"What?" Patrick turned his head to the side and opened his eye. Sydney was leaning over his face, his finger extended to continue poking his cheek. Patrick raised his hand and rubbed at his eyes before patting around beside his pillow to grab his glasses. "What is it, Syd?"

"It's time for brekkie!" Sydney chirped.

"Good. Now get off me." Patrick arranged his glasses on his face, briefly closing his eyes, letting out another yawn. Sydney was sitting on his back, effectively pinning him down to his bed. When his baby brother didn't move fast enough, Patrick quickly moved to his hands and knees and bucked him off of his back. Sydney laughed as he landed on the end of the bed.

"This is the longest you've slept in," Sydney remarked as Patrick slid out of his lower bunk bed and went over to his dresser to grab a pair of jeans. "You missed a good set this morning."

Patrick let out a short sigh; normally he wouldn't sleep through a good trip to the beach to go surfing for anything in the world. But lately, he hadn't really felt like doing anything. He wasn't even sure why. He had as much free time as he could want, as he and his siblings weren't making any more music for the year, he could hang out with his friends whenever he wanted, he could hang out with his siblings as siblings more than his band mates, he even got more time to spend with Ronan. But there was always something missing. Glancing at the calendar, he knew the reason for it. Deep down, he knew that it wasn't something that should be ignored; he didn't want to admit it to himself.

"Yeah, well, there'll be another one," Patrick shrugged. He grabbed a pair of jeans and jumped into them; doing up the button, then grabbed a yellow t-shirt and pulled it on. Reaching out a hand, he wrapped it under Sydney's arm and lifted him off of his feet, holding him at his side. "C'mon."

"Put me down!" Sydney thrashed about, trying to wiggle out of his brother's grasp.

"Sure!" At the top of the stairs, Patrick put him down and pretended to shove him hard on the back. Sydney let out a yelp as he started to fall forward, flailing his arms. Patrick reached out a hand and grabbed onto the back of his shirt hard enough so that Sydney fell back on the top stair, eyes wide. "Saved your life!" Patrick cackled as he jumped onto the banister of the stairs and slid down to the bottom. He brushed his long hair out of his face as he headed into the spacious kitchen. Sydney raced by him, pushing his arm.

"Ronan! Patrick pushed me down the stairs again!" Sydney whined as he took his spot at the table. Riley, Rhuben, and Noah were already sitting down. Ronan stood at the stove, scooping a large pile of scrambled eggs into a bowl.

"He tripped," Patrick said, dropping into his chair.

"Did not!" Sydney stuck out his tongue and Patrick did the same in return.

"As long as you didn't crack your head open, you're fine," Ronan said, causing Sydney to pout and the others to laugh. Ronan came back to the table and dropped the bowl of eggs onto the table before taking his hseat as well, his eyes moving over the food in fromt of them. Reaching out his hands, his movement caused a chain reaction and his kids did the same, each taking each other's hand around the tale. "We fold our hands and softly say, thank you for our food today. Amen." Ronan dropped his hands and picked up his fork, starting into his food. "So what do you guys have planned for today?"

"The guys said that they wanted to go to Bowla Bowla so I think they're gonna pick us up in the 'Big Time Rush Mobile'," Riley said. She used air quotes around the words. "Stupid name for a car," she added under her breath.

"Can I go too?" Sydney perked up.

"Sure, Little Man," Rhuben agreed. She smirked, bobbing her head back and forth. "You're, probably, the only one that can hand the guys' asses to them when it comes to bowling, so we might as well get some sort of entertainment out of it."

"What about you two?" Ronan turned to Patrick and Noah.

"I don't know." Noah shrugged. "Just hang out here. Play some video games or something." He scratched his forehead. "We'll think of something." He gave a soft smile. "And try _not_ to burn down the house this time," he added, moving a pointed glance over to Patrick.

Patrick grimaced. "That was one time. And, besides, it wasn't _entirely _my fault." He pointed a finger over towards Ronan. "You were supposed to change the batteries in the smoke alarm. If you did, the alarm would have gone off and we wouldn't have had to replace our oven for the second time." He rested his chin in his hand. "And you say that you're not old. Your slipping memory could contest that."

"Stop calling me old!" Ronan said above the Jacksons's laughter. "You know what? Just for that, you're not getting any dessert tonight."

Patrick blinked before his shoulders slumped. "That's not fair!" He started to poke at his plate. "At least it wasn't a fat joke." He smiled impishly when his siblings started laughing harder and Ronan reached out, smacking him on the back of the head.

The Jacksons finished their breakfast with laughter and random conversation. Patrick, being the first one up from the table, started to gather everyone's plates to drop them into the sink. He looked over at the phone as it rang. Riley reached for it, but Ronan edged her out of the way and grabbed it after looking at the caller ID. "Yes?" He held the phone to his ear. "Yeah, let me just go to my office." He pressed the phone to his shoulder and walked out of the kitchen.

Patrick waited a few seconds before putting the stopper in the sink and running the water for a few minutes. After the dishes were completely covered with soapy water, her turned off the faucet and, shaking his hands, hurried out of the kitchen. His brothers and sisters were already out of the living room and were leaning on the wall by Ronan's door, their ears pressed against it. Riley waved him over, and then pressed a finger to her lips. Patrick crouched down on the floor and removed a earring from his right ear before pressing it against the door.

"…not much time left. I'm sure it won't be a problem."

There was a pause.

"I'm not completely sure if they'll agree to it, but I think it'd be a good idea. Though part of me has some reservations as you would probably think."

Another pause.

"Well, that's the thing. They're usually really open minded with things that I think will help their band, since they don't do things that normal people do; their production, marketing, PR, and all that stuff is a bit different and…unorthodox than most people. You'd figure something like this wouldn't be a big deal. I mean, they agreed to announce their abuse, so doing something like this shouldn't be as hard. But, they don't really ever talk about it, so it might be harder than we think."

"What do you think he's talking about?" Sydney whispered.

"Nothing good if he doesn't want to tell us so far," Riley remarked. She turned her gaze to Patrick. "Maybe it has to do with how many sessions with Dr. Angelo that you missed." He rolled his eyes. Riley's face softened. "You know that he's starting to get worried about that."

"The only reason that we should go is if we have nightmares or something," Patrick said. "And I haven't, so I don't have to go." He curled his hands into fists as he continued to kneel on the floor. "Sheesh. Why is everyone making such a big deal about it?"

"Probably because it is, weasel," Rhuben said. "But, hey, we can't force you to go. You can just be idiotic all on your own."

"No worries on that one, Sis," Noah said. Patrick reached out and punched Noah on the shoulder causing him to let out a grunt of pain and fall against the door. The five siblings held their breath at the sound of the dull thud that he made and waited to see if Ronan had heard it. Hearing the creaking sound of someone getting out of the chair, they all tensed.

"Hurry! Hurry! Go! Go! Go!" Sydney swatted Noah, who's shoulders he was sitting on, on the head, frantically. "He's coming! He's coming!" The five siblings quickly got to their feet and raced away from Ronan's office and up the stairs. They piled on the floor at the top of the stairs and waited to see if they heard Ronan coming before finally relaxing. "Wonder what that was about."

"Hopefully it's nothing too bad," Riley commented.

"Like Ronan suggesting that we sign with Rocque Records to help the guys?" Noah smirked.

Riley smirked back. "Exactly."

* * *

Katie looked up from her laptop at the sound of a double knock on the front door of the apartment. The door swung wide open and Patrick and Noah trooped inside. She laughed a little as the door handle hit the back wall, creating a small dent. Her mother had fixed it up many times before, she wouldn't be happy knowing that she was going to have to do it again.

"What are you doing here? The guys went to Bowla Bowla." Katie quickly closed her laptop before bringing her hand up to her hair. Subconsciously, she started to run her fingers through her hair and when she realized what she was doing, she dropped her hand, rolling her eyes. _Geez. Could you be any more obvious?_

"Yeah, we know," Noah said. He crossed his arms over his chest. "But there's only so many times you can watch Kendall gloat about winning, Logan go on and on about the perfect formula to get a strike, Carlos throwing balls down the wrong lanes, and James making games go on forever because he's too busy looking at the girls a couple lanes over."

"Ten bucks he gets her number this time," Patrick added.

Katie laughed. She twisted her hands in her lap. "So, uh, what are you doing here?"

"We were bored so we wanted to see if you were doing anything particularly interesting," Patrick said. He went over to the refrigerator and stood in front of it, looking inside to see if there was anything good to eat. Noah moved over to the counter that Katie was sitting at and leaned against it. "But it doesn't really look like it."

"Pat!" Noah shook his head at Katie. "Ignore him, he doesn't have a filter."

"I'm aware," Katie replied with a roll of her eyes. Her eyebrows lowered a little bit. _I wonder if he actually means it, though. Does he really only want to hang out with me when he's bored and has nothing else to do? _"Um, what did you guys want to do? We got the crib to ourselves, Mom went out."

"Do you _really _want to stay locked up in the crib all day?" Patrick backed away from the refrigerator and turned towards Katie. He flashed her a smile. "You don't do a lot of interesting things when the guys aren't around, do you?"

"_Patrick!"_

"I could say the same to you," Katie said, ignoring Noah's snap. "You don't seem to do a lot when your sisters and the guys aren't around either." She shrugged her shoulders. "God forbid when James isn't around, you can't go to the gym."

Patrick twisted his mouth to the side, but slowly smiled. One of his most annoying habits (annoying to his siblings) was any insult that could be thrown his way, he would let roll off of his back. Unless it was a insult that directly insulted his family or his friends, he usually didn't care what people had to say about him. The most infuriating thing about it was that he would merely smile at the person. They didn't get the reaction they wanted and that was his victory over the whole thing.

Katie forced herself to look away from his smile, looking back and forth between the two boys. "Well, what do you guys want to do? Do you want to head down to the pool or something?"

"Sounds good to me," Noah said.

"Sure," Patrick agreed.

"Ok!" Katie perked up. "Let me just get my key and everything and then we can go!" She jumped down from the bar stool and disappeared into her room. Once she was sure she was out of sight, she went over to her desk and leaned into her mirror, studying her face for a moment. After a couple of seconds, she picked up a tube of lip gloss and spread it over her lips. She looked at the tube of mascara that was sitting beside her hand. _No, if you put that on, then it makes it seem like you're trying too hard._

Katie picked up a bottle of body spray and read the label, looking for the right fragrance, before spraying it on her neck. Once she was satisfied with the way she looked and smelled, she slid her feet into her flip flops and grabbed her key to the crib. She grabbed her phone with her other hand and left her room, turning off the light.

"Ok, I'm ready!" She walked over to the note pad that was left on the counter and wrote a quick note, letting her know where she was and who she was with. Once she finished, she ripped off the paper and dropped it at her mother's spot at their table. "Ok." She turned back to the front door, where Patrick and Noah were patiently waiting for her. The boys left the apartment before her and she made sure to lock the door with her key before the three went into the elevator.

Patrick sniffed the air. "What smells like honey?"

"Oh, that's me," Katie said. She shuffled her feet before looking up, staring at the number panel. "Its, my, uh, deodorant." She shrugged. "I like the normal, non-fragrance stuff, but, my mom bought it, so…yeah."

"I like it," Noah said helpfully.

"Me too." Patrick nodded.

Katie felt herself starting to blush and was glad that no one else was around. She wouldn't know how to deal with the embarrassment if someone had called her out on it. Actually, she did know what she'd do, the first thing she always thought of, punching them in the stomach. She punched James when he had teased her for having a crush on him and she punched him _again _when he had teased her for having a crush on Jake. But, that was her first real crush, so that made sense. Having a crush on a friend was different, you became very aware of what you did around them as well as how you though the other person reacted to what you did, and then there was not knowing how they felt, and the possible friendship that could be changed and possible rejection…

Katie shook her head. She _refused _to think about being rejected. The doors to the elevator dinged open and the three stepped outside and into the lobby of the PalmWoods. Katie glanced over at Bitters' desk to see if the manager was there, and when she saw that it was empty, she figured that he had either gotten a glimpse of them and hid or was working on some sort of scheme to scam all of the residents of the PalmWoods. Bitters always had some sort of vendetta against her, the guys, and the Jacksons since they continued to torment him relentlessly. But he enjoyed ignoring them and scamming people out of their money a lot more. Katie understood that part of him, she liked to prey on other people's naiveté as much as the next guy. But lately, it wasn't her main focus.

Her attention had turned from money and comic books to…well…boys and some of the things that she thought and felt about it, even while calmly looking through a magazine would really freak her out. When and how did she go from a tomboy that could beat anyone up to someone that fawned over how good looking guys were? _And, of course, with the other guys around, I always have that painful reminder about it._ Katie's thoughts were pushed out of her head as she, Patrick, and Noah stepped out onto the concrete of the PalmWoods Pool. There were a bunch of the PalmWoods residents lying on pool chairs and splashing around in the pool. The chlorine smell hit her nose immediately, causing her to recoil.

"You're not used to the smell yet?" Noah gave her a funny look as the three walked over to some empty pool chairs. He pushed Patrick out of the way of an empty one and jumped onto it before his older twin brother could.

Katie took the other empty pool chair and had to suppress a smile when Patrick sat down next to her. Her skin burned where his arm brushed against hers. He didn't have to sit that close, but he didn't seem to have a problem with it. Each time she moved her arm, she would bump it into his, but he didn't make a move to pull away from him.

"I don't think I will," Katie said, holding a hand up to her nose. "It's, like, my most hated smell in the world. Besides, BO of course."

"You don't want to get too close to Patrick then," Noah teased, shoving Patrick's shoulder. Patrick scowled and shoved him back, sticking out his tongue before giving him a noogie. Katie laughed as Noah tried to pull his head away from Patrick's grasp. After a couple of seconds, he managed to release himself.

"Please, _nothing_ is worse than Carlos's, BO," Katie said. She pushed her hair behind her ears. "Even_ Mom _won't go near his clothes for laundry; he has to do it himself. It's that bad."

"Does that surprise you?" Patrick gave her a funny look. "I mean, it's Carlos."

He didn't even have to explain it. Just saying 'it's Carlos' said it all. Just like his enthusiasm, hyperactivity, and sensitivity was just 'Carlos'. Katie really liked that about him, but there were times where it, honestly, would get on her nerves. Though he and the others could be idiotic at times, she knew that he would do anything that he could to make her smile whenever she was down. He was like her big brother that way, in fact, having all of the guys as her big brother was helpful. Kendall was her real big brother and she could go to him for anything, she could go to Logan with help on homework, she could go to James with boys, ands he could go to Carlos just to have a good time.

"Yep. I mean, he's the only one that could try and do a stage dive at an acoustic show," Katie said. She rolled her eyes, giggling a little, as she thought about it. Patrick and Noah laughed as well. When they had gone to the Staples Center for their meet and greet, acoustic show, and to watch the Lakers play (Which was one of the highlights of her life) Carlos had gotten so into the acoustic show that they were doing that he tried to stage dive onto the somewhat small audience that they had gathered for the sound check. He apologized a lot after that while Gustavo screamed at him for hours.

It was something Carlos would do and that she could probably see coming, but it was still funny. Katie moved to sit Indian style on the chair, angling her face towards the sun, and her movement caused her hand to land on top of his. She quickly pulled it away. "Uh, sorry."

"No worries," Patrick said.

Katie's eyebrows furrowed together. _Now worries? What does that mean? _She knew what it meant as it was slang, but…no problem? That wasn't the kind of reaction she expected…not something so nonchalant. She let out a quiet breath, her shoulders slumping. _Why does this have to be so hard? _

"Hey, guys!" Katie looked up and smiled as she saw Jo Taylor headed their way, holding onto the neck of an acoustic guitar. "I didn't know you all would be here." She lifted her guitar. "I was just trying to get some songs done while I wait to go on some more auditions."

"How's that going anyway?" Noah flipped his hair out of his face. "Have you gotten anything since Chauncey Jackson?"

"No." Jo frowned. "Though you can't expect casting directors to jump for you to work for them when your test screening caused the audience to torch the studio."

"Yeah, that really sucks," Patrick said sympathetically. Katie watched, her eyebrows furrowing as he wiped his hands on the sides of his jeans. "I mean, what the success of Harry Potter, you had a really good chance of getting big."

"Yeah, well, I guess we'll never know what could have been." Jo gave a careless shrug and finally smiled. "You win some and you lose some, maybe the next one will be better for me."

"Maybe."

Katie couldn't sit there watching the exchange. She caught Noah's eye and he looked at her for a long moment, his eyes burning right into hers. He then flicked his gaze over to Patrick and Jo and his eyes widened slightly before he brought a hand up to his mouth, playing with the silver studs that he had pierced under his bottom lip. He then looked away.

"You're welcome to join us if you want," Patrick said, causing Noah to shift to make some room for her. Jo smiled gratefully and sat down. "Does anyone want something to drink?"

"A smoothie, please," Noah said, lazily lifting his hand.

"Yeah, I'd like one too," Katie agreed. Her mouth was suddenly dry. "I'll-"

"I'll help you," Jo said, getting to her feet. "I was just about to get one for myself and my Dad anyway." Setting her guitar aside, Jo followed Patrick over to the smoothie stand. Disappointed, Katie looked down at her hands before up at Noah's face again. He gave her a sympathetic smile and a shrug of his shoulders as if saying, 'don't worry about it'.

Katie glanced over at Jo and Patrick as they waited in line. Jo said something to Patrick that made him smile and nod, then he said something back to her that made her laugh. Patrick beamed and the realization hit Katie like a ton of bricks. _Patrick still has a crush on Jo._

And to Katie, it was just a painful reminder that she couldn't compete with her.

* * *

**A/N: **I don't know why, but I don't like anything I'm doing with this story. Maybe because doing stories for/about the guys is easier as we got more of their personalities and different sides of them as the show went on. Maybe because I'm better at stories that have a overall plot that has the characters getting together as a side plot. Maybe because the Katie/OC one-shots that we've done (in Put Your Trust in Me and out) were more successful. Maybe because the 'good times' of the fandom is over now that the show is over.

I like this chapter, but even though I know where the story is going (just like with _Do It All Again) _it's not really working for me. I can't even do long chapters though with my stories that focus on the guys or all of the characters as a whole, I can do it easily. I'm not going to give up the story because I've done that too many times with my recent ones, I'm just letting you all know what I'm feeling as the story goes on.

For those wondering, _Do It All Again _will be continued at some point. I got the idea for this in the middle of that one so...

Cheers,

-Riles


	6. Brothers

**.:Chapter 06:.**

* * *

Katie wondered if she was cursed.

Every time something would be going her way, it would al blow up I her face. Thankfully, she was good at hiding her disappointment. Her life in Minnesota was going well, next thing she knew, she was being hauled out to LA, leaving her friends behind. That was OK; she was starting to figure out how things worked in LA. But her brother didn't spend as much time with her anymore. She could deal with that; she had other friends to hand out with. But they were all in the industry and were leaving every now and then too. Still, there was someone around at some point of another. Then there were times it where it was hard to be alone.

Katie was alone now. Stuck in the PalmWoods School classroom as her brother and his friends got the time away to deal with some work at Rocque Records. She let out a heavy sigh, trying to focus on whatever it was that Miss. Collins was saying about the First World War History was never really her best subject, but she was interested in some aspects of it. Kendall made it easier for her to understand what was going on with it from time to time, as it was his favorite subject, but he wasn't there to help her out this time. _Not that he is much; anyway, since he got out here, all he cares about is the band and girls. It's so annoying._

Katie stiffened as she felt something poke into her back. She didn't have to turn around to know who or what it was. Ever since she started up the new school year, it was the same thing every day. Countless taunts and insults hurled her way by the most popular girl in school, Victoria, and her merry band of followers. Normally, Katie would be the kind of girl that wouldn't take it. She would threaten the girls so badly that they wouldn't even think of looking at her twice. Except, this was Los Angeles, California not St. Paul, Minnesota. Things worked differently. Here, the girls were sneakier and had connections to everything so that you could be blacklisted at the drop of a hat.

That's what Victoria Hunter was especially good at. Her father was a major producer for almost every film company that you could imagine. She had met (and bragged about) meeting all of the famous celebrities. Every day, she had a new story of the celebrity that she partied with, the athlete that she met, and the musician that would play at her own parties. She knew _everybody _that she needed to know to make your life a living hell. That seemed to be her mission as soon as she had moved into the PalmWoods over the summer. Katie had first noticed her with the group of new kids that moved into the PalmWoods after she and her mother had come back from the All Over the World tour while the boys continued on.

Katie knew who she was, everyone knew who she was, and Katie was sure that Victoria knew who she was too. Every since then, Victoria seemed to have it out for Katie and Katie had done nothing wrong to her. Victoria happened upon her in a whirlwind. One minute, she was acting all nice and asking Katie some normal question, they were having a nice, normal conversation. Next thing she knew, Victoria had it out for her and tormented her the best way she could.

Her main ways of the torment was getting poked and prodded with sharp pencils and tacks, practically begging Katie to make some sort of noise or to complain to Miss. Collins. That's what he was hoping just to be able to get prove to Katie that she was a bitch. Victoria would adopt a sweet smile and a sweet voice that would trick anyone that came up to ask what was going on. She had everyone wrapped around her finger and it was infuriating.

So much so that it was humiliating to Katie to know that she had gone from a girl that could hold her own and stand up for herself, to a girl that would rather take it and get it over with. No one would believe her anyway, so why rock the boat?

The poking and prodding stopped for a while, but then the whispers started. Katie didn't even bother trying to listen to them, they were whispering loud enough so that she and others around her could hear everything that was being said.

_"She acts like she's so high and mighty just because her brother is in a band."_

_"I know! It's so annoying."_

_"Doesn't she realize that no one cares?"_

_"Probably not, she's too stupid to realize it. That's why no one really likes her."_

_"That's why she doesn't have any friends."_

_"Pathetic. She thinks that her friends really like her when they all probably just laugh at her behind her bad. Seriously, I don't know what I would do if I had to pretend to be friends with her. It must be so annoying."_

Katie knew that none of it was true, but she couldn't help the feeling of defeat that washed over her. Crossing her arms, Katie leaned forward and rested against her notebook. Her mind wasn't even on school anymore. She just wanted to leave and go home and try to forget everything that was happening and find something to do that would make her forget. When class ended, Katie quickly stood up and pulled her shirt away from her skin, allowing balls of paper to fall into her seat. She gathered her books and shoved them into her backpack; slinging the bag over her shoulder, Katie turned and hurried from the room.

She kept her eyes down, grabbing the packet of paper that Miss. Collins was holding out to her. Miss. Collins started to call after her, probably trying to find out what was wrong with her, but Katie tuned her out and went back to the crib. Sighing heavily, Katie dropped her backpack to the ground and dragged it behind her, crossing the apartment and over to the table that they used for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Swinging her arm, Katie slapped her backpack onto the table top. She dropped heavily into her chair, a pout sliding onto her face.

"Hey, Baby Sister." Kendall walked out of his room, looking at his phone. "What's up?" When Katie didn't reply, he lifted his head and stopped in his tracks. Kendall knew when his sister was happy, sad, upset, ecstatic, and everything in between. This was _not_ the sister that he knew and loved. "What's wrong, Katie?"

"Nothing." Katie busied herself, opening her backpack and starting to take out her books.

"It doesn't _sound_ like nothing," Kendall denied. He pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. He put his phone on the table by his arm before giving his sister his full attention. He reached out a hand and tilted Katie's head up so that she was looking directly at him. "C'mon Katie, I know you better than this. We can talk-"

"That's a joke!" Katie spat. Her hazel eyes flashed with so much anger and frustration that Kendall dropped his hand in shock. "I haven't been able to talk to you about _anything_ since we got out here. Everything has been about _you! You _were the one that made us move here! _You're _the one that causes so much trouble with Gustavo and everyone around you because you don't understand that what you do affects other people. Half the time you get into that mess because you feel that you're so entitled to get everything that someone that's been working in the industry for five years gets." Katie hastily wiped her eyes, recognizing the symptoms of wanting to cry. "And the whole time, _you're _the one with his head so far up his butt and everything that's going on in _his_ life that he doesn't notice when other people are having problems."

Katie fell silent as soon as the words came out of her mouth. She had never spoken to her brother that way before. She had never let him know how she felt about having to go to LA. But, he didn't understand. He was the social butterfly and could make friends everywhere he went, and she was sitting off at the sidelines, tagging along with him whenever she got the chance. He never had to worry about being picked on or looked down upon for being 'Kendall's little sister'. She didn't want to risk looking at Kendall, not sure how he was going to react to the news.

His silence wasn't helping either.

"Katie," he finally said. "I didn't mean to make you feel that way. I don't mean for anything to make you upset, you know that." Katie nodded, still looking down at her hands. "Why didn't you ever say anything before? About coming out here or whatever?"

"What would it have done?" Katie started to twist her fingers together. "It's not like I had anyone to stay with back in Minnesota. It just sucks, because you didn't even ask me or Mom if we wanted to go out to LA, you just said that we'd do it." She shrugged. "I don't know."

"…I guess you're right," Kendall admitted after a minute.

_Huh? _Katie's head shot up. She was right? Since when was she right? Kendall didn't even notice the things that he did half the time and now here he was saying that she was right about everything? She never said that he was stupid, but he had a tendency to be oblivious sometimes. He got so passionate about something, got so into whatever it was that needed his full attention and everything else was pushed out of his line of sight. It was probably his biggest flaw, she had seen him do it a lot in Minnesota, mostly with hockey, but it was still part of his personality.

"I have been ignoring you a lot lately, but that's only because I want the band to work out," Kendall said. He leaned forward so that he was looking Katie in the eye. "But not for reasons that you think." He pointed at her. "I'm not doing this for me. At least, at first I wasn't. I'm doing it for James." He shook his head. "I mean, the guy had this idea for his dream basically since he was born, then Gustavo was so blind that he couldn't see the talent that he had. I was so angry when he wanted to work with me instead of James, which was why I refused to do it in the first place."

"Besides the fact that you eat, breathe, and sleep hockey," Katie reminded him. "Frankly, even with the band, I don't see you doing anything else."

"Thanks." Kendall gave a small smile. "But you didn't let me finish. I didn't want to do it at first because he wanted me, not James. Then I figured, what other way is a good way to get James out there to live out his dream? It was risky, but I wanted to try and do it anyway." His eyebrows raised, he let out a breath of air. "Surprisingly, Gustavo took it and we've been out here since. So, yeah, I didn't really think of you and Mom when I said we'd go to LA, but at least I wasn't being selfish." He shrugged. "I can see how you thought that, though."

"It still wasn't fair for me to say it," Katie mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Kendall's gasp of shock caused Katie to look up at him. She smiled a little when he saw the mock fearful look on his face. "But did _my _Baby Sister just apologize? She usually doesn't unless she's forced to or she really knows that she's wrong." The corner of his mouth lifted. "Which sounds like someone else we know." Katie smiled as well. "But seriously, what's wrong?"

Katie was about to say 'nothing' again, but decided against it. But, what really was wrong? How unhappy she was in LA? How she was ignored by her brother? How their band overshadowed everything? How she was being tormented in school? How she had a crush on one of her best friends? How said crush had a crush on her brother's ex-girlfriend? It was all so confusing. She didn't even know what it was herself, but still, some of it, she couldn't talk to Kendall about. Not only because it was embarrassing, but because she wasn't sure how he'd react to it. Would he go into his normal 'big-brother-protector' mode or into an 'I'm-going-to-try-and-be-your-friend-instead-of-yo ur-brother-but-still-mess-everything-up-mode'?

She decided to risk it. "Kendall," she said, dragging out his name, trying together the confidence to keep going. "What would you do if you knew that someone had a crush on Jo?"

Kendall blinked, surprised at the way that the conversation was going. He obviously didn't expect her to bring up his ex-girlfriend, who he had dated for over a year. The confusion that swirled in his green eyes reflected that as he tried to figure out what to say. "Um, well, I'm not going to lie and say that it would be a bit annoying, but she can do what she wants," he said.

"Huh." Katie's eyebrows rose. "And yet, you were the one that let her go…twice."

Kendall grimaced. "That's really complicated." Katie could tell that he was just stalling for time. It was actually something that he refused to talk about unless he was backed into a corner with it. She tried to talk to him about it after it happened, but he would change the subject. Asking James, Logan, and Carlos if they had any luck, they would say the same thing; that he would try to change the subject (though he wasn't always successful). He had made his decision and things were getting better, but he still didn't like to have it thrown in his face or have it be talked about.

"No it's not," Katie denied. She started to count on her fingers. "You and Jo broke up so she could go to New Zealand and start her movie career, it took you a while to actually let her go, which you had help with, then you started to go after Lucy, which you had help with, even though you knew that you didn't actually like her as much as she liked you. And then when Jo came back and you had to choose between Jo _and _Lucy, you didn't choose either of them. That sounds _really_ straight forward to me."

"Trust me, Katie," Kendall said with a light laugh. "Even the simplest relationship is complicated.

"You didn't answer my question," Katie reminded him.

"You noticed." Kendall thought for a moment. Katie decided to try a different way of getting the answer that she was looking for. Part of her really didn't want to know, it was his business. But another part of her, the loyal sister part of her really did want to know. He had been happy with Jo and almost downright sick when she had left. She didn't understand how all of that had changed.

"Were you in love with her?" Katie started to draw circles on the table top with her finger.

"Who?"

Katie gave Kendall a 'duh' look. "Jo. Were you in love with her?"

Kendall was silent again. But not as long this time. "I never _told _her that I was in love with her. Like, the words 'I love you'…I never said that. But I felt like I was getting there." Katie continued to look at him and he laughed. "Ok! Ok! Yes, I was in love with her." He looked at Katie curiously. "Why'd you ask? I mean, you never really seemed interested in my relationship with Jo except when you helped prove she was lying about her boyfriend."

"That's because you were too stupid to believe it," Katie deadpanned. She closed her hands into fists. "To be honest, I never cared about your relationship with Jo because you either spent _all _of your time with her or because you just never talked about it with me." She gave him a sharp look. "And, no offense, but you got whipped, and I didn't want to be around that."

Kendall laughed. He wasn't offended by it, just like Logan and Camille were offended by their friends all making fun of them for always having their hands all over each other and grossing people out with their extreme PDA. (Katie always wondered why people were against PDA, deep down she thought it was kind of sweet, but after seeing them together and having to be shielded by James, she understood perfectly). When Kendall was dating Jo even the fans noticed that he didn't spend so much time with James, Logan, and Carlos. They had all speculated that Jo had Kendall whipped (which was speculated) and that she was a bad girlfriend for him. Katie wasn't especially close to Jo at all, but in some instances she knew that she was good for Kendall. They got jealous of each other over stupid misunderstandings and made each other depressed, but they still had their good moments.

"You're lucky that we can joke about that now or else I would make you take it back," Kendall warned.

"So you were in love with Jo," Katie continued. Kendall nodded. "If that was true, then why did you want to go out with Lucy?"

Kendall started to reply but then stopped. "Katie, is something bothering you about Jo?"

Now it was Katie's turn to laugh. It wasn't genuine; she just wanted to get Kendall off of her back. _Why did I even bring this up? I can't talk to him about boys! He and the guys are lousy when it comes to talking about boys. Jo, Camille, and Stephanie talk about them too much. _Katie rolled her eyes. _It's a wonder that I can even listen to the fans rattle on about guys all the time. At least Riley, Rhuben, and Lizzie are different._

Katie started to smile to herself. Riley and Rhuben were more like her. Most of the time they only talked about boys when they were talking about something stupid that the guys (as they affectionately called Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James as 'their boys') had said or done, but where quick to defend them whenever they needed it. Being tomboys, having mostly guys as friends, and a lot of jerks as ex-boyfriends really helped to make it so that they didn't fawn all over everyone that came their way. Lizzie Zevon, Dak's little sister, was the kind of girl that could blather on about boys as much as she could blather on about dancing or whatever sport it was that she was interested in at the time. Because of Lizzie's girly tendencies, she didn't get how the blonde was her best friend, but she was thankful for that at the same time.

Plus, Riley and Rhuben were like her older sisters, Riley more to her and Rhuben more to Lizzie, but still her sister nonetheless. It helped that Riley seemed to be the only one that could really get under Kendall's skin but be his best friend at the same time. That way Katie knew that she still had someone on her side, depending on the circumstances. Riley had a way of understanding both sides of a situation and give advice to help both sides without actively getting dragged in the problem if she didn't want to be.

"You still didn't answer my question." Kendall leaned back in his chair and smirked at her. It was then Katie understood how Kendall could have so many girls fall for him. "Don't think I didn't notice it. You're too much like me sometimes, Baby Sister."

"Does that mean that I'm going to push _my _best friend away until you can make up your mind?" Katie shot back.

Kendall frowned. "Seriously, what's wrong? You asked about Jo, and I don't understand how that can make you-"

"Patrick likes Jo!" Katie blurted out.

She waited for his reaction. Kendall blinked twice and then an expression of though slid over his face. She could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he thought about it. Katie's gut suddenly jerked because she became aware that Kendall didn't know that Patrick liked his ex-girlfriend. How could he have not known? It was kind of obvious, he had a way of becoming shy but even more outgoing when he was around her. The chance of her liking him back was really slim, but it still made her worry that she could be left out in the cold.

Katie tightened so hard that her fingernails pressed indents into her skin. They started to shake, her palms itched, and she had to resist the urge to start crying. She felt a pinch behind her eyes and the familiar feeling of tears coming to her eyes. They pooled and threatened to spill over onto her cheeks. Turning away from her brother, she wiped them away, already hating herself for bringing it up.

She hadn't even told the guy she liked him and he was already making her cry. _Suck it up, Katie! You don't even know if anything's going to come from that yet._

Kendall reached out and brushed away his sister's tears. "In hindsight that makes sense," he admitted. "I always kind of noticed it, but I never took the time to stop and think about it." He shrugged. "So what?" Katie blinked at him. "He can like her all he wants, personally, I don't think he's going to do anything about it."

"Why?" Katie pushed her brother's hand from her face. But she then laughed a she moved his hands and started to tickle her, making her laugh for the first time that day.

"For one, out of respect," Kendall said.

"Ha!" Katie gave a loud laugh. "You think he respects you! I'm sorry; I don't think the Jacksons really respect anyone except Ronan, Mom, Kelly, and Miss. Collins."

"I didn't mean me, thanks for that vote of confidence." Kendall rolled his eyes. "I meant out of respect to Jo." Kendall gave a warm smile when Katie frowned, as confused as ever. Nothing about being in a relationship with someone made sense to her. There was always something or someone else that would get in the way. Now she got why people always wondered whether or not love was worth it.

_Whoa! Love? I am _not _in love._

"Besides, he's had enough rejection in his life that I'm not sure that he would be able to handle it if he asked her out and she said 'no'," Kendall continued. He gave her a knowing look and Katie suddenly felt guilty. The Jacksons each had different ways of dealing with the things that they had gone through in their lives. All together, they either didn't talk about it or made a joke of it, and then each had their own ways of dealing with it. She wasn't sure about the rest of them, but she had an up close and personal look with what Patrick was doing. Maybe she should tell someone. Maybe it would help him. _But then he'd be mad at me and I don't know if I want that._

"Yeah, I get that," Katie said.

"If you want me advice," Kendall said. "I think that you should tell Patrick how you feel about him. Take it from me, the longer you wait, the worse it's going to get. You might miss your chance completely."

"What about you?" Katie rested her chin in her hand.

Kendall's eyes shifted. "I got too close to losing something important to me and I don't want that to happen again." He bobbed his bead back and forth. "Which is why I'm moving slowly and why I haven't really said anything yet." Kendall and Katie turned as the door to the crib opened and Carlos and Riley walked inside, both holding onto large baskets of clothes.

"Speak of the devil," Katie said. She turned back to her brother with a devilish smile on her face. Kendall looked back at her, anxiety flashing through his eyes before they narrowed. Katie turned back around. "Hey, Riles. Hey, Carlos. What's up?" She got up from the table and walked over to the two. Riley reached out a hand and closed the door to the apartment. "What are you doing?"

"CareBear doesn't know the first thing about doing laundry, so of course, he asked me to help him out." Riley's eyes flashed as she walked over to the counter and dropped the basket on top. She reached in and pulled out a pair of socks that were blotchy. "He's getting better but still doesn't have it down yet, as you can see."

"Well, excuse me!"

_"I don't think I will," Katie said, holding a hand up to her nose. "It's, like, my most hated smell in the world. Besides, BO of course."_

_"You don't want to get too close to Patrick then," Noah teased, shoving Patrick's shoulder. Patrick scowled and shoved him back, sticking out his tongue before giving him a noogie. Katie laughed as Noah tried to pull his head away from Patrick's grasp. After a couple of seconds, he managed to release himself._

_"Please, __nothing__ is worse than Carlos's, BO," Katie said. She pushed her hair behind her ears. "Even__ Mom __won't go near his clothes for laundry; he has to do it himself. It's that bad."_

_"Does that surprise you?" Patrick gave her a funny look. "I mean, it's Carlos."_

_And then Jo had to come along. _Katie shook her head, pushing he thought away. She didn't need to dwell on it; it would just make her upset all over again. "Does that surprise you?" She asked instead. "I mean, this is the guy that would rather sit back and eat corn dogs all day long."

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Riles," Carlos defended himself.

"That's because it is, Carlos," Kendall spoke up. He finally got up from his seat and joined everyone around the counter. He glanced into the basket. "It's like smokers, but with corn dogs," he said, though he was speaking to Riley. "_Everything _on him smells like corn dogs."

"No big deal, mate, it's an improvement," Riley said. She smirked at him. "At least he's doing something about the way _he_ smells."

"Ha ha." Kendall rolled his eyes. "No offense, but that was one of the weakest jabs that you've ever thrown my way."

"It's only two o'clock, I've got the rest of the day to make fun of you," Riley returned. Her eyes shifted over his face. "Eyebrows."

Carlos moved up to Riley's side and looked down into the basket. "And I'm getting better, thank you very much; at least not everything is pink this time. I'm sure the next time I do my laundry I'll get it down." He reached out a hand and placed it on Riley's shoulder. "And think of it this way, Riles, you get more work with styling me as you buy my clothes."

"All on Gustavo's company card of course," Riley added with a small smile.

Katie looked over at Kendall and almost laughed out loud when she noticed the jealousy that flashed over his face. He was never good at hiding it whenever he was jealous of Riley giving attention to another guy, even if it was one of his best friends.

"Well, will you at least help me put everything away?" Carlos gave her a wide, cheesy smile. "I promise that I'll pay you back." He leaned closer to her and started to stage-whisper. "I have some spaghetti left in the refrigerator that has your name all over it."

Riley laughed. "If I don't take you up on that, I'll just eat Maccas again and I've already had enough of that this week. So, it's a deal. Thanks."

"And to quote you, no worries," Carlos replied. "C'mon." He waited for Riley to throw his socks back into the basket and pick it up, balancing it on her knee before bringing it up to her arms. The two started for Carlos's and James's room.

"Uh, Riles," Katie spoke up, grabbing the older girl's attention. She turned around so fast that one of her pigtails hit her in the face before falling over her shoulder. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Apart from making dinner, screaming at my brothers and sister over some video game, and working on something music related?" She pretended to think about it. "Nothing. Why?"

"Because Kendall had gotten me and him tickets to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, but I can't go." Katie glanced over at her backpack, remembering all of the homework that she had to do that night. She turned back to Riley looking at her brother out of the corner of her eye, noticing the annoyed looks he was sending her way."Do you want to go instead?"

"Bond films aren't really my thing," Riley said. "But sure, I have nothing else to do."

"Oh!" Kendall sounded surprised before he relaxed into a smile. "Then I'll meet you at the Twilight theatre at, I don't, seven or so. Plenty of time for previews and to get food."

Riley tilted her head to the side. "Or I could drive over here and pick you up." She continued before Kendall could say agree or disagree. Placing a finger on her chin, she looked contemplative. "But that may be a painful reminder of the fact that you still don't know how to drive and we wouldn't want that, would we?" Laughing to herself, Riley turned on her heel and disappeared into Carlos's room.

Katie walked over to her backpack and picked it up, slinging it over her shoulder. "You owe me!" She called to her brother before going to her own room. If there was going to be anything that would get her mind off of the day, it would be homework.

* * *

**A/N: **Whew, I got some new inspiration for my stories, so I hope that you guys liked this chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	7. Best Friends

**.:Chapter 07:.**

* * *

Katie sighed heavily, resting her chin in her hands, staring down at her notebook and open textbook. What was the point of even doing homework when there were more important things that she could think about? Like…other ways to get on Bitters nerves, other ways to scam people out of their money at the Palm Woods, hanging out with her friends, finding new outfits for concerts…Katie leaned forward and wrote a note to herself in the notebook: _figure out new concert outfits_.

She leaned back, studying what she just wrote. It was starting to scare her, how much she said that she wouldn't turn into a 'girly girl' and care so much about her makeup, the clothes she wore, who was good looking, what the latest styles were. She didn't care at all up until she got to LA. Her brothers made a pact to say that they wouldn't let LA change them…they should have said not to let _fame_ change them. Everyone changes as they get older, but being in new places did the same thing to all of them. Her mother didn't use to care in how she dressed, just as long as she was able to get her work done and be there for her kids. Even she was aware that there were different standards that you had to stick to, to make it in LA. Katie wasn't immune to it. But she was growing up as well, so there was going to be a time where she had to change a little.

And concerts were fun; yeah it was cool that she got to go in for free and got backstage passes with little to no effort, being able to see her friends and family live out their dream was cool too, but when was it going to be her turn to drop everything that she didn't deem necessary just so she could live out her dream? Instead, she was stuck doing homework and trying to pay attention in class at a school where the teacher was young (-ish) and had most of the guys' attention, and yet she couldn't see that Katie was being tormented on a nearly daily basis.

Katie looked down when she heard the sound of her phone starting to ring. "Saved by the bell." Leaning over, Katie saw that she was getting a Face Talk notification from her best friend, Lizzie Zevon. _Finally, someone to talk to. _Katie picked up the phone and opened up the application. "Hey, Lizz."

"Heyyy!" Lizzie waved. "So, I got some time away from practice today and I figured I'd see how my girlie was doing!"

Katie grinned to herself. Lizzie was probably the girliest girl that she knew, but unlike other girls she knew (mainly Victoria and her posse) Lizzie could be just as much of a tomboy. One day you could see her in her frilliest dress and in makeup, the next you could see her in a hat, one of her brother's jerseys, and sneakers. Katie never thought she could ever be friends with a girl that was so much of her polar opposite, but Lizzie had been so outgoing when the two met, and since she was the only girl around that was her age (not that she didn't like hanging out with Jo, Camille, Stephanie, Riley and Rhuben) so the two clicked pretty quickly. Katie was a bit jealous of Lizzie, being completely honest with herself. She was tall, blonde, had guys drooling over her, and didn't ever really put her foot in her mouth. Whenever she did have a blonde moment, which Katie liked to tease her about as much as she could, she just laughed it off.

It would be annoying if they weren't such good friends.

"I'm good," Katie replied. "Sort of bored, though. Nothing's really been going on over here." Katie thought back to the fights that she had watched Patrick participate in and frowned. It was a secret, one she didn't like much, nor did she understand, and it was killing her that she couldn't tell her best friend. _I wonder if Lizzie even knows. I mean, all of the Jacksons know and Patrick and Noah are close with her. _She felt envy rush through her veins. No matter who she became friends with out in LA, they always seemed to be closer to someone else. The only one that was essentially close to her was Sydney, but he liked everybody so it wasn't that special.

"Really?" Lizzie didn't look convinced. "Last I checked there was always something going on with your brother and the guys or with the Jacksons involved." She gave a cheeky smile. "I remember someone always going on and on about what sort of trouble you had to help them out of. Even running over security guard in a golf cart."

"Yeah, that was an accident," Katie said. She laughed at the memory. "I was just so engrossed in my game, and the guys kept interrupting me to get on that _stupid_ morning show. If I wasn't so close to finishing the game, I would have seen them."

"Instead, you ran over them?"

"All's fair in video games and war."

"Sweetie, I think that the correct words you're looking for is all's fair in _love_ and war," Lizzie corrected her. Her cheeky smile widened and Katie studied her closely, her eyes narrowing.

"Something tells me that you didn't want to see how I was doing," Katie said slowly.

"Why Katherine Apple Knight, I don't like your tone. It sounds like you're accusing me of something." Lizzie placed her hand on her chest and batted her eyelashes, trying to look as innocent as possible. Katie continued to look at her. "Ok. Ok. I wanted to ask you about what was going on with Kendall and Riley. Word on the street is that he finally asked her out on a date? You know, I thought that he would do it eventually; I just didn't know that he would wait so long. How long can you wait after you tell a girl that you like her, to want to go out with her? I mean, yeah, I get that he _did_ jump through girlfriends pretty quickly and he was, sort of, with Lucy at the time, but that doesn't mean that…"

Katie started to zone out. As much as she loved Lizzie, she sometimes forgot how much of a tangent she could go on. It didn't matter the subject, if Lizzie could talk about something, she would talk about it as long as she could. Her major topic of choice was clothes, dancing, boys and any other combination of the three that you could come up with. But she could equally talk about surfing, baking, and whatever her current TV obsession was. Katie ran a hand through her hair, bringing her hair up to her face to look for split ends. _Maybe I can do something different with my hair. It's been the same since we got out here. _She blinked, dropping her hair. _Where did that come from? _

"Are you listening to me?!" Lizzie demanded.

"No," Katie said honestly. "I zoned out after the first three seconds." She laughed at the offended look on Lizzie's face before answering her questions. "And don't get too excited about them going out. I had to ask him for her, so I'm not sure what's going to happen with that."

Lizzie's face puckered as she shook her head. "Ooh, he lost a lot of potential points there." Lizzie shook her head sympathetically. "Girls like it when guys take charge, though considering their situation, it may have helped. So you'll be there to have them thank you on their wedding day."

Katie laughed. She rested her cheek in her hand as she gazed at her best friend. "How do you know so much about this stuff?"

"Experience, my dear, experience," Lizzie said.

"Anyway, how did you find out?" Katie suddenly paid attention to that fact. "It happened, like, only two hours ago. Word couldn't have traveled that fast."

"You have to remember, with our friends, nothing stays a secret for long," Lizzie said. She placed a finger to her chin, thinking for a moment. "My guess is that it happened one of two ways. Kendall told the guys, who told Jo, Camille, and Stephanie, who told WayneWayne, who told Dak, who told me. Or Riley told her brothers and sister, since they never keep relationship stuff a secret from each other,"-again, Katie cringed at the word, knowing the sort of trouble that Patrick could be in if anyone found out what he was doing-"and they told Dak and WayneWayne who told me. Either way, if it's something that's meant to be a secret, the Jacksons will make sure it's a secret. If not, it won't be."

"Good to know," Katie said.

"Speaking of, did you know that Logan and Camille broke up again? I heard they're completely done this time."

"Really?" Katie didn't expect that at all. Logan and Camille constantly broke up and got together, ever since they started going out. But they never stayed apart for too long, they liked each other too much. Though she was sure that there would be a time that they would officially call it quits, Katie didn't think it would come so soon. "Did they both agree to it or…does it have to do with Rhu? Or what?"

"I don't know." Lizzie shook her head. "It's all really complicated; all I know is that they broke up on good terms."

"Well, that's good," Katie said. She stretched her legs out in front of her, leaning back against her headboard. Resting her arm on a stack of pillows, she adjusted her phone in her hand. Holding it up so long was starting to tire her out; she didn't know how anyone could be on their phones for so long. But it seemed that everyone had it attached to their hands lately. It was kind of funny to her; some would say that Kendall and Logan were the closets out of the four guys (her money was on Kendall and James) and their relationship problems were similar. Though she did understand why Riley had gotten upset at her brother, she cared more about their friendship than potentially being with him, and he almost threw it away. "At least they can still be friends without it being awkward."

"That's what you think!" Lizzie snorted. "No one can really go from dating to being 'just friends' with each other, but whatever." She waved a hand. "Not my problem, I'd just like to hear the gossip." Her eyes lit up. "Speaking of gossip, what's up with you and Patrick?"

Katie rolled her eyes. "Why? What's going on with you and Noah?"

"Nothing while I'm out of town, I'll let you know when I get back. But don't change the subject." Lizzie was always quick about things like that. "He's there, you're there, what's going on?"

"Nothing and I'll leave it at that," Katie said simply.

"You've been spending too much time with Riles and Rhubes," Lizzie remarked.

Katie gave a small smile. She was always uncomfortably talking about things like that, even with her best friend. She couldn't even talk to her mother when she got her first period, it was embarrassing. Then to know that her brother and his friends knew about it too and wanted to let her know that they would be there to talk? That was even worse. If she could avoid embarrassing situations for the rest of her life, she'd do it in a heartbeat. Not until she was mature enough to handle it, and at that point, she hoped she never was.

"Ok. Ok. I'll cut you some slack for now." Lizzie said. She then turned serious. "But I _really _wanted to know if-"

"Knock! Knock!" Katie turned, swiveling with the phone in her hand as well, to see Patrick leaning against her doorway. She hadn't even heard him get to the crib. He and his siblings always did a double knock at the front door before barging in. If not that, they would announce their arrival by throwing themselves down the swirly slide. Both sounds were hard to miss. _Kendall must have let him in,_ she said to herself. Katie looked down when she heard Lizzie's tiny voice.

"Is that Patrick?" She asked.

"Yes," Katie said quickly. She hovered her thumb over the phone. "Bye."

"No! Leave me on!" Katie tuned her out and ended the call. She locked the screen on her phone and smiled at Patrick. He stayed in the doorway, probably too nervous to get closer just in case Kendall or James was around. Even Noah and Sydney were afraid to be in her room with her, alone, when the guys were around. "What's up?"

"Not much," Patrick replied. He shrugged, crossing his legs. "Just came to ask you something." He lifted his chin, pointing to her phone. "Was that Lil Bit?"

Katie was suddenly struck with the thought that he and his siblings hadn't really come up with a nickname for her. Ever since they had met, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had given clever nicknames to all of their friends, something they did with everyone, from what she could understand. Lil Bit was something that came up before Katie, herself, had even met them or Lizzie, and that stuck pretty quickly. But now that she noticed, she didn't get one. Other than Kates, but it was just another nickname for her already shortened name, so it didn't make that much of a difference.

"Yeah, she was just saying 'hi'." Katie dug her finger into her comforter. "Her dancing retreat or whatever it is must be going well. She didn't have much to complain about this time."

"Probably just upset that she's missing everything going on here," Patrick sympathized.

"Exactly."

There was a brief silence. Katie was startled when Patrick started speaking again, it was so sudden. He brought a hand up and rubbed it through his hair, being careful not to disturb the spikes that he spent every morning meticulously making sure stood up against whatever could be thrown at him that day.

"So, I heard that you, somehow, orchestrated it that Kendall and Riley are going to the movies tomorrow," Patrick said. Avoiding her eyes, he pushed himself off of the doorframe. He bit his lower lip, bringing his piercings into his mouth. "They're going to see the new Bond film, yeah?"

_Is he nervous? _Realizing that she hadn't actually responded to him, Katie nodded. _He never gets nervous for anything. Not even playing a really big show or public speaking._

"Well, I wanted to see the movie too. So, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. Sort of like a double date thing," Patrick continued. He shrugged again, now scratching the back of his neck. Having known him so long, she realized that it was his nervous habit. "Besides, I'm sure that once he finds out, Kendall would try to watch you like a hawk anyways."

Katie's smile faded and she mentally cringed, curling up on herself. He was right. Kendall had a habit of watching her and making sure she wasn't getting into trouble with everything. Ever since James told him about the guy that she wanted to go see that 'make out movie' with, she didn't even remember his name, anything that had to do with her being girl set him off. It was like he couldn't function, knowing that his baby sister wasn't exactly his baby sister anymore. _I bet Lizzie had to go through this too. _Katie laughed to herself, knowing that it wasn't something that Lizzie Zevon had to go through _before_; it was what she _always_ went through. Dak Zevon could be so protective over his little sister that it wasn't even funny. Their friends even though that Kendall and James were tame compared to Dak, and the two Big Time Rush guys were bad when together.

"Did I say something funny?" Patrick looked at her, his face scrunched up in confusion.

Katie abruptly stopped laughing. _Way to go, Katie. Make yourself look even more stupid. _"No, I was just thinking about…something else." She shook her head. "Yeah, I'd like to go to the movie with you." She mustered her confidence and gave him a look of nonchalance. "You're lucky I like Bond films. Exploding cars, fast paced action, and a handsome guy in a suit, where can you go wrong with that?"

"Stale popcorn and week old candy," Patrick said.

Katie laughed.

* * *

**A/N: **For those of you that asked before, we don't actually have anything set up for the Patie part of our timeline, just that they get together in season 3. So I'm having fun with this story, doing what I want with it while Rhu and I figure out what we'll do with them. I needed Lizzie to appear in this (not sure if Dak and WayneWayne will) because I needed Katie to have some other plots for this story as well.

Don't know if I want to keep going back and forth from Katie's to Patrick's POV or keep with Katie's. I'll decide by the next chapter. The next chapter really starts the plot of the story, btw, and you'll see more of the other characters starting the next chapter as well.

Cheers,

-Riles


	8. First Date

**.:Chapter 08:.**

* * *

"What about this?"

"No, you'd only use that for the fall."

"This one?"

"That's one's ugly!"

"How about this one?"

"You're kidding, right?"

Patrick sighed heavily, dropping the t-shirt onto the floor and sat down on his bed, crossing his arms over his white undershirt. He glanced at his siblings, who were scattered along the floor as well, though they didn't look as annoyed as he did. In fact, it would have been funny if it wasn't so stupid. _Who knew that choosing a shirt to wear to go to a movie was really that difficult? _He managed a small smile. _If I were dressing myself, then it would have taken two seconds._

"I think that you should try the button down shirt," Sydney said, pointing to one of the few garments that were left in the closet. At the moment, Patrick was glad that Sydney wasn't interested in girls yet, or else things would be even more chaotic than it was now. All he did was ask what sort of thing he should wear to a movie and the next thing he knew, all of his siblings had set up camp in his and Noah's room and had shot down practically everything that he could think of. Now he understood why girls could take so long to get dressed sometimes. People cared too much about making a good impression. In his opinion, as long as you could make the other person laugh or entertain them in some way, you were already good to go.

Patrick blinked over at it before slowly turning to face his baby brother. "That's the first thing that I tried on and you said that you didn't like it then."

"I like it now." Sydney rested his hands in his lap, giving an impish smile. Riley, Rhuben, and Noah all laughed. Patrick rolled his eyes and went back to the closet, yanking it off of the hanger so that it flew back and struck the back of the closet. Sydney leaned over to look at Riley, Rhuben, and Noah. "You like it better, right?"

"You guys suck," Patrick complained.

"You think styling is easy?" Riley raised an eyebrow, pushing her hair over her shoulders. She rested her hands behind her and leaned back. "Now you know how hard it is to come up with something 'perfect' for an awards show or whatever."

"Riles, it's a date," Noah pointed out.

"I know that." Riley nodded. "But we still get photographed and out clothes criticized, especially for the nightlife, which is doubly why he needs to look good."

"And we're Jacksons, dammit, we _always _look good," Rhuben added, causing the five of them to break out into peals of laughter. Their laughter brought Ronan into the room. He asses the laughter and looked over at his second eldest son, shaking his head. Patrick just raised a hand, as if saying 'don't ask', pulling the button down shirt over his shoulders. "You have to remember, Ronan, with us, dating is a family affair."

"Exactly," Sydney piped up. His dimples appeared in his cheeks. "Once you date one of us, you're basically dating the _whole_ family."

"That's a strange thought," Ronan commented. Patrick felt Ronan's eyes on him and tilted his head forward, allowing his hair to fall into his face, hoping to avoid his gaze. But whenever Ronan needed to have a serious conversation, you made sure that you listened or else you would regret it. His being interrupted and not being listened to were some of his biggest pet peeves. Though most of the time any of them could make a joke or find a way to make him laugh and smile and he wouldn't be as ticked. However, most times you couldn't. "Patrick, how come you've been missing your sessions with Dr. Angelo?"

Patrick shrugged and his siblings fell silent. "Last I checked we only needed to go if we had a nightmare or needed something to talk about." He shrugged again. "I don't have anything to talk about."

"Are you sure about that?" Ronan pressed.

Patrick's eyes shifted. He was sure that Ronan knew what he was doing at that point. He probably saw all the signs of being in a fight. His face still hadn't completely healed from the last one, and there was only so much makeup that you could use on your face before you became suspicious. "Pretty sure," he said slowly.

"So the bruises that you're trying to cover are just spontaneous?"

Patrick froze for a minute. He didn't dare to look at his brothers and sisters. Ronan was a smart man, which was evident from the success that they saw from their band. It was also evident in the way that he dealt with them as their new adoptive father. He had a good balance of being a friend and a father to them, and didn't want to mess up what they considered their normal way of living. So it was really dumb to think that he could get away with what he was doing.

"It's no big deal," Patrick said slowly. "I've…just been getting into a couple of fights with some guys…"

"Like a fight club kind of thing?" Ronan interrupted. Patrick shrugged again. "You know that's illegal? And that you could easily get charged with assault because of it?" He sighed warily, pinching the bridge of his nose before addressing all five Jacksons. "I want you all to listen to me carefully when I saw this," he advised. He turned his attention back to Patrick. "I know that your father's birthday is coming up and I know that you're…confused because you don't know what to do on that day. Whether to celebrate it or ignore it. And I know that it just brings up bad memories for you guys and it can make you moody but…" he shook his head. "You guys seriously have to find better outlets for it. I mean, you get into fights," he motioned to Patrick. "You get mad at basically everyone for nothing and act out for no reason," he motioned to Riley. "You either completely clam up or snap at everyone," he motioned to Rhuben. "And you two seem to be the only sane ones that I have and I'm sure that that's going to be screwed up soon," he finished by motioning to Noah and Sydney, who looked at each other. "And what I don't understand is why do you all think that you can deal with your grief yourselves and think that no one will understand? You have four, technically five if you can't Julius, other people that know _exactly _what you're going through. Use it." He licked his lips. "I get that talking to the guys can help you sometimes, but then you're just ignoring the problem."

Patrick bowed his head.

"Does anyone else know what you're doing?"

"Huh?" Patrick lifted his head, pushing his glasses up his nose, not sure if Ronan was talking to him. "What'd you say?"

"I'm asking as your father and your manager, considering I'm afraid I may have to deal with this in the media at some point so I'd like to know now just in case, does anyone else know that you're getting into fights?"

Patrick chewed his lower lip, hesitating for a long moment. Only Katie knew, and he didn't even want her to know. She had stumbled upon him one day when he had been trying to clean up his cuts and bruises. There was no point in lying about it then, he had been caught red handed (which was true as he had smeared blood on his hand from a bloody nose). Katie agreed not to tell anyone, and he hoped that she was sort of impressed with it. Having it come out in the media could potentially hurt his image and his career, but at the same time, it probably would have helped it. He was considered a bad boy, which he only partially believes himself. Telling him the truth, knowing that Katie could be trusted, probably would make things easier.

"No, just us," He finally said. He gave his famous lop-sided smile. "So you should be happy. We all managed to help each other on something. To keep this from getting to you."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Ronan smiled. "You're going to pay for that one later, but you have to get ready for your date." His smile widened teasingly and he reached out, ruffling Patrick's shoulder length hair. He then looked at Riley, who was sitting on the ground, legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles. "Aren't you going to get ready?"

Riley gave him an offended look. "I already am!"

Patrick laughed loudly, along with his siblings as Ronan slapped a hand over his mouth. "See, this is why you need to go on more dates. Or else you're going to wind up old and alone." He gave a lengthy pause for affect. "I mean, you're already old, but you're going to be alone."

"One step too far, Tricky," Ronan warned. "One step too far." He reached into his pocket and pulled something out, tossing it to him. Patrick twisted his hand to the side and grabbed it out of the air. Confused, he looked down at the car keys that were in his hand. "Luckily for you, yours and Noah's cars finally got here from Australia. I figured that you'd like to use your jeep for your date tonight. Since you have your license and everything."

"Yeah, my Oz one, not the California one," Patrick protested.

"It doesn't stop you from using our cars," Rhuben pointed out.

"That's only because he knows that if he gets caught, you two are the ones that are going to get in trouble," Noah pointed out. "Since he's not insured on your cars and everything." He looked up from his hands at the sudden silence in the room and noticed Riley, Rhuben, and Patrick all glaring at him and Sydney looking at him curiously. "Ok! I do it too! Just stop with the eyes!"

"Thanks." Patrick shoved his car keys into his pocket. He looked at his watch then grabbed his shoes, bending over to put them on. Honestly, he didn't think he deserved to be able to use his car. Knowing that he was inflicting pain on other people just to be able to say that he was strong enough to beat someone up…no one knew the real reason why he was doing it. No one knew that he wanted to prove to his sisters that he could take care of them like they had taken care of him and his brothers for years. No one knew that he was trying to show his parents that they could be proud of him and that he could step up to the plate and become the 'man of the family' when he needed to. _Though at this point I don't think I'm making them too proud. _

Once he was finished getting dressed, he took the deodorant that Sydney handed him, wanting to be helpful and rolled the sticky substance under his arms. Looking at his keys again, he turned to his eldest sister, who climbed off of the floor, smoothing out her jean skirt. "You ready to go?"

"Yep," she replied, checking her pockets for her phone and wallet.

"Have fun," Ronan said.

"I still don't see why I can't go," Sydney said. "I like James Bond movies too, and Patrick invited himself along."

"I'm sure you get the logistics of what a date is, Syd, but I'll be glad to explain it to you, again," Rhuben said. She reached out and ruffled his hair, his frown still tugging the corners of his lips down towards his chin. "Don't take it personally."

"Ok." Sydney sighed.

* * *

Katie frowned at her reflection, setting her makeup brush down onto the counter. Her mother was standing behind her, brushing out her hair before trying it up in a ponytail. Then moving in front of her daughter, Mrs. Knight fluffed out her bangs so that it curled out and onto her forehead. Noticing Katie's frown, Mrs. Knight tilted her daughter's chin up so that she could look into her eyes. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

"Nothing." Katie tried to sound convincing but knew that it wasn't going to work. Her mother was too smart for that. "It's just…" she started to twirl the end of the ponytail around her fingers. "Everyone's making this out to be a big deal when it's not and it's really starting to get on my nerves." She pointed to the door. "As soon as I step out there, the guys are going to look at me funny and they're going to coo and, ugh, it's so stupid."

"Well, what do you think they're going to do? Ignore you?" Mrs. Knight laughed. "Sweetie, its' your first date and all of them are like your brothers, they just want you to have a good time." She looked at Katie seriously. "Though don't take all of their advice, they'll probably just try to scare you and Patrick out of doing anything."

At the thought, Katie blushed. She didn't think of that at all. Was there any time of the night where she was supposed to hold his hand? Or was he supposed to do that? Would he try to kiss her goodnight? What was she supposed to do? Each though slammed into her brain, one right after another, making her panic even more than before. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, _Katie wiped sweat off of her hands.

"If there's any advice that you listen to, then listen to me," Mrs. Knight said gently, smoothing Katie's hair back out of her face. "Just relax and be yourself. You like to hang out with Patrick already, so what difference does it make that you're on a date? Yes, you're going to be a bit more nervous than usual, but that's the exciting part about it."

"Ok, I get that, but did I have to wear this stupid dress?" Katie stood up from the chair and looked down at the flower print tunic dress she was wearing. "I feel so stupid so...so…"

"Girly?" Mrs. Knight supplied.

"Well…yeah," Katie admitted. She chewed her bottom lip. "I feel weird. And the guys are going to say something about it, too. And that's just going to make it worse!"

"If they _do _say anything, it's because they're telling you how beautiful you look and how beautiful you are, and that's the truth," Mrs. Knight said gently. "And please, for me, try to have a good time." She suddenly looked thoughtful. "And I'll tell Kendall not to embarrass you and I'll make sure the other guys don't follow along behind you."

Katie grinned. "Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome."

Katie reached over and took the light jacket that she was going to bring along, just in case it got cold in the theater, and slowly walked over to the door. She grabbed onto the doorknob and slowly opened it, stepping out into the main area of the crib. The boys had been talking about some movie they were watching on TV, but stopped and turned to look at her when they heard the door open.

"What?" Katie asked it with a bit more bite than she intended. She just didn't like the way that all of them were looking at her.

"Nothing," James replied. "You look great," he added with a charming smile.

Katie smiled a little when the other guys nodded in agreement. It meant a bit more to her, coming from James, as he was the one that seemed to be the most protective of her when it came to boys. So it was good to hear. Kendall got up from where he was sitting and walked over to his sister. Without saying a word, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight high, which Katie gratefully accepted, feeling her anxiety wash away at the mere contact. He was always that comforting to her whenever she couldn't sleep and would sneak into his bed in the middle of the night, so it was good to be able to feel that sense of comfort again. Especially for something that was so important in your life, you only had your first date once.

"Thanks," Katie said to him. "Thanks James," she added.

"You're welcome," James said. He, Logan, and Carlos then adopted the same sort of 'parental' look at the same time.

"Now, there are some things that we need to go over, young lady," Carlos said.

Katie laughed. Her mother had warned her about this, she even knew that it was coming, especially after James freaked out the one time she had wanted to go see the 'make out movie' that was playing at the theatre. But to get it from Logan and Carlos too? That was even weirder. Carlos she could understand since he was the only one that had been with his girlfriend the longest and had no problems with her. Logan, she wasn't sure she ever wanted advice from. Camille was his first girlfriend, he was her first boyfriend, and the way they acted it was like they were going to be each other's last. Walking in on them at times had traumatized her more than she would like to admit.

_I hope I never get to be like that. _"Guys, lay off," Kendall said to his three best friends. She's nervous enough as it is. Katie cringed. _Thanks for that Big Brother, that's exactly what I needed. _"Sorry, Baby Sister, I thought it would help."

"Oh." Katie laughed to herself, realizing that she had said it out loud. She looked down at the pocket on her dress, the only useful thing about it as she thought, when her phone buzzed. She pulled it out and checked the text message that she got. She had two of them, one from Noah, and the other from Patrick.

**Noah: **Let me know if he does something stupid and I'll make sure he doesn't hear the end of it. And when I mean stupid, I mean even more stupid than usual.

Katie laughed before clicking over to Patrick's text.

**Patrick: **We're in the parking lot. It's probably better if you come out to us because Bitters will probably find some reason or another to stop us and I'm not in the mood to sign something only for it to be turned around and sold later.

Katie quickly responded. **Katie: **Oh, so it bothers you when I do that too?

**Patrick: **No. When you do it, it's cute. It shows ambition. When he does it, it's just plain creepy.

"What are you blushing about?"

Katie looked up and momentarily, mentally cursed her mother for getting her ability to turn red at the drop of a hat, noticing that all eyes were on her. She must have been looking at her phone with a big smile on her face. "Nothing. Patrick just texted me, he says that he and Riles are in the parking lot." She turned and waved to her mother before following Kendall out of the apartment and to the stairwell.

"I don't want to embarrass you, "Kendall said. "I just want to say…don't do something I wouldn't do."

"Ok, then that's a lot of things," Katie said teasingly. She laughed as Kendall rolled his eyes. The brother-sister duo left the stairwell and walked across the lobby of the PalmWoods and out into the parking lot. Katie jumped at the sound of a horn honking and turned toward a black and yellow jeep that set next to a red ford fusion. She recognized the red car as Riley's instantly, having been picked up and dropped off in it numerous times. Katie grinned appreciatively when she saw Patrick sitting where a window should have been on the driver's side door.

"Is that your car?" Kendall asked as they approached the raven haired siblings. Katie glanced at him and saw that he looked a little jealous. He still didn't have his license yet, though he had gotten driving lessons from Ronan and his mother. It must have been a bit of a blow to his self esteem to know that.

"Yep, just got it sent over form Oz," Riley said. "Noah's, too." She was leaning against the back of her car. She pushed herself into a standing position and looked Kendall up and down before tilting her head to the side. "Maybe before I stopped working with Rocque Records I should have put it that I dress you guys for dates too, Hockey-Head," she commented.

Katie laughed, approaching the back of the jeep and looking over at it. She laughed at the license plate that read, _St Patrk. _She looked over at Riley's license plate that read, _Redmptn _and smiled as well before looking over at Kendall to see how he would react. Which was usual to her teasing, he gave an easygoing smile in return.

"I happen to think that I look amazing," he said.

"Sure." Riley paused and her eyes flashed. "If you're completely blind."

"Which is funny because you wear glasses and contacts," Patrick spoke up. Riley reached over and shoved him on the back, causing him to jerk forward and grab onto the sides of the car to make sure he didn't fall out. Finally, he swung his legs out from the car and jumped to the ground. "What? I'm just saying, Sis."

"Yeah, and sometimes, you need to keep your mouth shut, Bro," Riley said. Her upper lip curled for a minute when she turned back to Kendall. "You've been spending too much time with, James." She then smirked at him. "But, lucky for you, you're right for once." The two laughed and she stepped forward, giving him a hug before the two did their handshake.

Katie didn't get the two of them sometimes. Though they were best friends, there were moments where they could tease each other so badly, obviously trying to one-up each other. Then there were times that they got into fights so long that they didn't even remember what they were fighting about in the first place. But they always managed to be able to laugh about it and have a good time with each other and she was glad that her brother was finally getting a chance to be happy. She understood Riley's reservation (who would want to be someone's third girlfriend only hours after the guy had dumped two girls and had a bit of a reputation for jumping into relationships) but she was still happy for them. Even if she had to do all of the work.

"Katie?"

Katie snapped her head to the side and looked over at Patrick, feeling stupid when she realized that he had been trying to get her attention. "What? Sorry."

"I said that you look nice," Patrick said. "I like your dress." His smile turned into a smirk. He opened his mouth to say something, but then seemed to think better of it, because he just closed his mouth. He looked at his watch. "We should just get going."

"Ok, I'll meet you there," Riley said, walking over to the driver's seat of her car.

Katie walked over to the passenger seat of the jeep and opened the door, climbing inside. She glanced over at Kendall and Riley and saw that he held the driver's door open for her as she got inside before getting into the car himself.

"So I didn't tell you what happened earlier today," Kendall said as he got into the car.

"Bitters or Gustavo?" Riley replied.

"Both."

"Lay it on me, I gotta hear this!"

Katie then looked at Patrick as he got into the driver's seat and pulled the seat belt over his chest. _Was I supposed to wait for him to open the door for me?_

"You know, you really have to stop doing that." Patrick's voice broke her out of her thoughts and she looked at him, her eyebrows lowering in confusion. He glanced at her before leaning forward to start the car. "Comparing yourself to other people," he clarified.

"What? Are you psychic?" Katie wouldn't put it past him.

"No, just super perceptive," Patrick said. "You've' been doing that since, basically, you got to LA." Checking over his shoulder, he carefully backed out of the parking spot before turning the wheel to get onto the road. "If you're not comparing yourself to your brother's fame, or your relationship with Kendall to my siblings' and my relationship with each other, or your looks to Lizzie's, Jo's, Camille's, Stephanie's, Riley's, and Rhuben's, or whether or not you're a good date,"-at this he looked at her again, gently pulling on one of his lip rings-"you're beating yourself down. And if you do that you're going to find that you're going to be very disappointed with life."

Katie looked at him in shock. He knew all of that when no one else seemed to notice it? Not even her mother was quite aware of everything that she felt. Katie had always been more of an introvert than Kendall was, so that was a big different there. She just didn't know that she was so obvious about everything. In a way, she was used to being by herself; her brother was three years older than her, he always had a lot of friends around him, and she was always the 'little sister' that followed him around instead of a girl that just so happened to be his sister.

"Wow." Katie finally managed to find something to say. Just one word, but it summed up everything that she felt and thought about him.

"No worries, I'm smarter than I act," Patrick said. This time, Katie noticed, that it was more of a humorless smile.

"You're not stupid, Pat," Katie said gently. "I know that you sometimes think you are, but you're not. I haven't ever heard anyone say that you are." She started to ramble, knowing where it could have come from. "I mean, your brothers and sisters say it, sure, but we know that they don't mean it. And, if your siblings aren't supposed to mean most of what they tease you about anyway. But, yeah, no one thinks you're stupid."

Patrick was silent for a long moment before he gave another lopsided smile. "Katie."

"What?"

"Relax. You're freaking yourself out." Patrick reached out a hand and flipped on the radio, moving through radio stations until he stopped on one, rap music blasting out. "Do you like rap music?"

"Not particularly," Katie said. She leaned back in the seat, already feeling herself calm down. The salty, summer air must have been doing it. The jeep didn't have and windows except the windshield and while her bangs were flying up off of her forehead, it didn't bother her much. "I never really got the appeal; it sounds like al of nonsense."

"Rapping can be pretty cool though, yeah," Patrick said, dutifully changing the station. "That's why we think its ace to put it into our music sometimes." That was one thing that set their band apart from other rock bands, apart from making up their own choreographed routines to it. They mixed in a bunch of rap lyrics into their rocks songs and they continued to adapt to the different types of rock music that became popular, although they still stuck to their own style at the same time. Katie was more of a fan of indie sounding bands, but the DarkElements was still one of her favorites. (Even though she had times where she thought it was weird that one of her favorite bands was her friends).

"Oh! I love this song!" Katie said as soon as she recognized the words to _What Makes You Beautiful _by One Direction. She reached out and playfully punched Patrick on the shoulder when he snorted and started to laugh. "It's not funny."

"Yes, it is," he said. "Like, every girl likes this song and this band and I seriously don't get it. Yeah, the song is catchy; it's catchy as hell, actually, but whatever."

"You just don't know good music." Katie stuck her tongue out at him.

"I _know _good music," Patrick said, sounding a little offended. "I have great taste in music. And in general." He glanced over at her. "You know I wasn't kidding when I said that I like your outfit." He shrugged, using one hand to turn into the parking lot of the movie theater. "I mean, nice shirts and jeans is your thing, but, I don't know…" he slowly started to smirk. Katie eyes him warily. "A couple of nice dresses and short skirts wouldn't be a problem."

Now Katie punched him on the arm as hard as she could. He fended off her blow pretty easily. She was sure that if they had been riding with Kendall and Riley, like she had originally thought they would, Kendall would have climbed into the backseat and clobbered Patrick to death for that one comment alone. Would it be funny? Yes. But it'd be kind of sad at the same time, especially knowing that James would do much worse. She laughed at the thought, getting out of the car and slamming the door shut behind her.

Patrick and Katie walked into the movie theater and over to the ticket box where Kendall and Riley were waiting for them. Riley took two tickets from Kendall's hand and passed them over to her brother. "We have enough time to get some food before the previews start," She said.

"I'll get it," Kendall offered. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "The usual, right?"

"Right." Riley nodded. She gave him a challenging look. "I think I should go with you, Hockey-Head. I mean, what with you being a blonde and everything, you might forget." Kendall held out an arm for her to go ahead of him. Riley held up her hands and took a step back. "Oh no, ladies first, Kendork."

"Seriously? You can't go five minutes without thinking of something?" Kendall shook his head.

"It's part of my charm," Riley replied.

"I'll get the food for you," Patrick said. He pointed over at their brother and sister and made a 'cuckoo sign' while rolling his eyes, causing Katie to laugh. She nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. Suddenly finding herself alone, Katie twisted the toe of her sandal into the ground. She didn't want to look at her phone, in case that would make her seem uninterested.

_Geez, now I know why the guys get so nervous whenever they're going to go out on a date. At least they have more practice than me. _She started to twist her fingers together. _I wonder how the guys would react if Patrick and I would actually became official? I bet they'd never leave us alone. _Katie started to pace. _Well, Kendall owes me a favor anyway, so maybe he can get the other guys to lay off. _She suddenly stopped in her tracks.

What about the fans?

She knew how cutthroat they could be over what 'pairing' they liked better. Who they thought that each of the guys should be with. And they were stuck on the ideas so much, sometimes, that they could get particularly nasty. She had seen that with James when he started to date Jo. A lot of Kendall's fans had liked him with Jo that they basically harassed James and Jo about it. Things had gotten better since then, but she never thought she would have to deal with it.

Maybe she did now…now that she was potentially going out with a celebrity. She never thought of that. Not many people paid attention to her, even when her brother got big. Sure, she got invited to a few events and asked to do an interview here and there, but nothing that big. Now she may as well get used to her name being everywhere.

"You ok, kid?" Katie turned to see Riley standing behind her, holding onto a cup of soda and a large bucket of popcorn. Katie would have laughed if it wasn't so normal. The Jacksons took possession of their food very seriously and could eat as much as Carlos could. "You seem to be really in your head, tonight."

"Is it that obvious?" Katie put her hands in her dress pockets.

"Kinda," Riley said mysteriously. "If you're worried about Hockey-Head, I already told Pat that I'd make sure that he leaves you two alone." She used her shoulder to brush her hair out of her face.

Katie smirked back at her. "Yeah, I think I already got that." She then dropped the smirk to a genuine smile. "You know, my brother really likes you, and I wish I didn't have to ask you out for him."

Riley shrugged. "It's my fault anyway, since I wanted him to be by himself for a while." Her eyes shifted. "As a tip, stay close to the center of whatever aisle you sit in. I like to sit in the back row and I'm sure that he's going to be watching you like a hawk. So if there's any way to slow Kendall down for whatever reason, put a lot of chairs in between you and him."

Katie laughed. Sometimes she was glad that she didn't actually have an older sister, knowing that she could probably get into a lot of fights with her. So having one by association was even better than that. "I'll keep that in mind." She nodded behind Riley as the boys walked back over to them and passed out the rest of the food. Katie was happy to know that Patrick had gotten her favorite candy, Dots, and her favorite soda, grape.

The four of them got their tickets ripped and headed into the theater. Katie was about to ask Patrick where he wanted to sit, but stopped when he noticed that he was looking at her funny. After a second of wondering if she had spilled something on herself, she realized he was looking behind her and turned to see that Riley had grabbed onto Kendall's arm and was dragging him up the steps towards the back of the theater like a rag doll. Kendall obviously wanted to stick to his sister like glue, as he continuously looked back to the younger siblings. But each time he said something; Riley would yank him harder and then say something to him with a smile. She must have convinced him for he stopped getting dragged behind her and said something back, also with a smile and the two moved into empty seats in the middle or the row.

"Don't ever say that we can't be persuasive when we need to be," Patrick joked. He reached out and grabbed onto Katie's hand, gently guiding her into a seat.

Even when they sat down, he didn't let go of her hand. Not even through the previews and the movie, when they would lean over to talk to each other about what movie they wanted to see next, what they thought of the acting in a certain scene, if they thought that something that happened was stupid, cool, or completely unrealistic, he didn't let go of her hand. And Katie couldn't stop the biggest smile from forming on her face. Risking a glance at him, she could see that he was blushing a little, but seemed to be enjoying himself as well. She looked behind her and saw Kendall had his arm around Riley's shoulders and the two were talking quietly in between handfuls of popcorn.

_Way to go, Big Brother, _Katie faced the front and enjoyed the rest of the movie. Once it ended, they merged with the group of moviegoers and left the theater, slowly walking along as they talked about their favorite part of the movie. This time, to make her laugh, Patrick got into the car by climbing through the open backseat and making an obvious show of searching for someone that may have tried to hitch a ride. She laughed as she got into the passenger seat. Katie turned on the radio when he started the car again and laughed loudly (as Patrick groaned) when _What Makes You Beautiful _came on again.

To annoy him even further, she sang the song at the top of her lungs as he just smiled and shook his head. When they pulled up at the PalmWoods, he surprised her by leaning over and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, explaining that he didn't want to risk doing it in front of Kendall, just in case. That was fine with her. She was in a bit of a daze anyway. So much so that it felt like she floated all the way back to the crib and before she knew it, she had taken a shower, changed into her pajamas, and was getting ready to read a book before she went to sleep.

Not that she would be getting a lot of it anyway. Her thumping heart was going to make sure of that. Hearing her phone ring, Katie picked it up, glancing at the caller ID before bringing it up to her ear.

"Hello?"

Katie barely had the word out of her mouth before Lizzie lit into her. "Hello? That's all you have to say to me?! How come I had to hear about you getting a date from the grapevine? Why didn't _you_ tell me? What did you guys do? Where did you go? What happened? Did you look cute? What was your outfit like? You have to send me a picture."

Katie laughed sleepily, pulling her duvet up over her shoulder. "Relax, Lizz, I'll tell you everything."

* * *

**A/N: **Is the pacing OK? Am I showing Patie well? I think I need to show a bit more of Patrick. It's the first time I'm really focusing on them and I'm a bit self-conscious about it, since I'm trying it more from Katie's insecure about boys angle.

Cheers,

-Riles


	9. Stop

**.:Chapter 09:.**

* * *

_Whack! Whack! Whack!_

Katie's breathing filled her ears as she rhythmically slammed her closed into the soft cushion of the punching bag in front of her. Sweat trickled down her face, making her skin itch, and her ponytail to dangle behind her, falling apart from the scrunchie that loosely held it all together. She didn't want to stop and pull it out, though, that would've thrown her off of her rhythm. If she took the time to fix it, then that would give James the time to stop and ask her what he had been waiting to ask her, what any of the guys wanted to ask her.

Kendall had been giving her space the past couple of days, and she was happy about that. He was always going to care about her wellbeing and everything going on in her life, and she knew that. But at least he was able to realize that he needed to start treating her with a bit more respect than he had before. James, Logan, and Carlos? Not so much. The date hadn't been that long ago and James, Logan, and Carlos had been following her around and asking her about it whenever they caught a glimpse of her at the crib. Mrs. Knight, probably for her own amusement, didn't tell them to knock it off, and sat back and watched as Katie continued to walk around the crib, yelling at them to leave her alone, though she was laughing about it as well. It was a risk to take up James's offer to work out with him that morning. She wasn't much to lift weights; she didn't like the way that her arms continued to ache and the way her hands smelled afterwards. But she did like to box. Besides, her mother said that she had to come up with a different way to channel her energy after she had gotten kicked off of the *lacrosse team for 'illegal checking'.

Kendall was always proud to tell the story about the ill fated game, telling them that he was sure, hen that she was definitely his sister. The two of them had really taken in their father's drive to win a game at all costs. One of the only things that Kendall would allow himself to be compared to his father for.

"Katie, you can stop now!" James laughed and reached over, grabbing onto the front of Katie's fist a second before it struck the bag. "Geez, if you keep going, you're going to bruise your fists and Mama Knight will _not_ forgive me if I let that happen." James let go of the bag and stepped around it, lowering Katie's arm to the side. "I wouldn't even be able to live with myself."

"James, you're more concerned about _sweating _when you work out than anything else," Katie teased, lightly hitting him in the stomach with her taped fist. "I think you could care less about whether or not I bruise my fist." She held it up and James playfully took a step back away from her.

"Put that thing away, I don't think you're licensed to have a weapon on you," James said.

Katie rolled her eyes as she started to remove the tape from her hands. If she didn't get going now and get up to the crib to take a shower, she as going to be late for school. Not that being late for school was really a problem for her; personally, she had been late many times before. It was knowing that Victoria and her posse had a habit of choosing their victim on whoever was the last one to arrive at the PalmWoods School. How she was able to get away with almost everything that she ever did was still a huge surprise to her.

"Seriously, if there's something you want to know, just ask now and don't beat around the bush with it," Katie said under her breath, keeping her gaze on the floor, gathering her things. "That just makes it worse." When James didn't say anything, she let out a huff, turning to face him. "James, I'm seri-"she paused, seeing the look that James was giving her. "What?"

"Nothing." James shrugged.

"No, what is it?" Katie pressed.

"Nothing!" James started to pack up his own gear, being meticulous about the ways that they were put back into his bag. It was so ridiculous the means that he would go through to make sure that everything he had was in order so that he could keep his body and his appearance in shape.

"Then stop _looking _at me like that!" Katie scowled.

"Well, it's just…" James motioned over to the mats that were used for stretching and the two sat down. "It's really weird to think that you're not a little girl anymore." Katie let out a huff and rolled her eyes. Thankfully she didn't get that from Kendall _or _her mom. She had never considered herself a 'Momma's girl' even though she loved her mother very much, that was Kendall's territory. She as a Daddy's girl, and even though she didn't have a father at the moment, she was sure that he would be glad to see how she turned out. A tough girl that could take care of herself, but was starting to find her way into being a young woman as well. Unfortunately, everyone that seemed to notice it around her was starting to make it all so cheesy and she didn't like cheese _that_ much. "Just, hear me out, please."

"Fine." Katie crossed her legs and waited for James to continue.

"Because of the way that my Mom's and Dad's divorce went up, I started to spend a lot more time with you guys," James explained gently. "And before I knew it, I started to feel like you and Kendall and Mama Knight were more of my family than my own family is. And as sad as that can be sometimes, it's actually something that I've grown to love." He scratched the back of his neck. "And I've come to think of you as my little sister." He started to laugh. "And I know that it pisses Kendall off whenever I say that we should have been brother and sister instead of you two."

"Oh I say that too," Katie agreed. She laughed to herself before bringing her hands up near her face, close to her neck. "Especially when that vein in his neck gets all tight and throbby when he clenches his jaw." The two laughed and she placed her hands into her lap. Her laughter finally knocked her ponytail loose; it fell all around her face.

James reached out and gently pushed her hair out of her face. "Yeah, but then I have to remember that you really are his sister and I get jealous of that sometimes," he admitted with a casual shrug. "So whenever he seems too busy with his own thing, I try to step in."

And then it finally dawned on her why James was always so overprotective of her. It wasn't because he didn't trust guys around her (though that was a really big part of it) and it wasn't because he thought that she was weak and needed to be protected by someone all the time. It was because he was lonely. His parents were hardly around and he really was the closest to Katie besides her own brother. She always thought that he was just being nice so the age difference didn't bother anyone. He usually was the first one to let her tag along when they were younger.

"I don't mean to step on your toes or to replace Kendall or your Dad or anything," James continued. Katie winced at the mention of her father. She barely remembered a relationship with him, but because of Kendall's and her mother's reactions, she had a habit of making a face or something. In her head, her father was attributed to bad feelings and that it should never be brought up. "But I do want you to be happy." He then gave her a serious look. "Even if that means that I have to sit there and watch you and Patrick when you need supervision." He placed a hand on his chest. "I made him to be what he is today, he _needs _the supervision."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Katie said.

"Oh I trust you, I don't trust him," James reassured her. He held up his hands defensively. "All guys are evil, Katie, remember that."

"Oh I remember," Katie said. She smiled sweetly at James, letting him know that she was up to something. "I _also __remember _that I knocked you out with one hit because of the last guy that you thought was evil." She placed her hands on her hips. "_And_ I can get over two hundred punches in thirty seconds," she added, motioning to the punching bag. "If anything happens, which it won't, then I can handle myself."

James laughed. "No offense, Katie, but you sucker punched me, that wasn't fair. And I think that Patrick could break you like a toothpick, have you seen his guns?" He rapidly raised and lowered his eyebrows. "They're not as good as mine, but they're big."

"James!" Katie felt herself starting to blush and put her hands over her face. _Well, I couldn't have this conversation with anyone but James. Even though he's had so many girlfriends, he knows what works with some people and doesn't with others._

"Sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you," James apologized. "Anyway…" he ran a hand through his hair. "What I mean is that I don't want to you to think that you don't have anyone to talk to if you ever need it. If you don't want to talk to your Mom or Kendall, you can talk to me. And I _promise_,"-he held up a hand like a boy scout-"I won't embarrass you. Or I'll at least try not to."

Katie smiled. "Thanks, James. That means a lot." She stood up and pulled her gym bag over her shoulder. "Really, it does. I may not act like it, but I do like having you around, even though you can be weirdly obsessive with your…amazing hair."

"It is amazing isn't it?" James pulled his compact mirror out of his bag and looked at his reflection, smiling into it. When he noticed Katie walking away, he closed the compact mirror and stuck it in his bag, before scrambling off of the floor to follow after her. He fell into step with her, twiddling his thumbs. "Soooo….how'd the date go?"

"James!" Katie started to walk faster but James easily kept up with her.

"Oh come on. You can tell me."

"No!"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Katie!"

"James!"

"Please?"

"Stop it!"

* * *

**A/N: **I needed to have some JamesxKatie bonding in this story, especially since he is the one that's the most overprotective out of the four boys. (Though I didn't like that about the show, I think it's because Kendall knew that Katie really could take care of herself). There's gonna be some LoganxKatie and CarlosxKatie bonding coming soon as well.

*I don't remember if I said earlier that she played lacrosse or field hockey when she was younger.

Cheers,

-Riles

**Also**, Rhu and I have this on our twitter, but For those who are waiting on BTR/Riley/Rhuben full length fics or BTR/Patrick/Noah/Sydney full length fics, we're constantly thinking of ideas for them. I know a good handful of you want them. If you have any ideas, feel free to send them our way.


	10. Drop

**.:Chapter 10:.**

* * *

"So what are you going to do when you see Patrick today? He's working late at the studio right?"

Katie rolled her eyes as Lizzie crossed her legs, leaning back in her seat. Her green shone with excitement, set off against her bright blonde hair. There was no doubt about it that she was anything but beautiful. Putting her spoon back in her cup of frozen yogurt, she took her time answering, looking at the PalmWoods Pool. Her brother and his friends were all playing volleyball and were yelling loudly when each of them missed the ball or managed to score and amazing shot. Her smile widened, watching as the ball landed a few inches past Carlos's outstretched hands.

The four guys then turned to Jo, Camille, Stephanie, Riley, and Rhuben, who were all standing at referees or score keepers. The five girls were sitting at the side of the pool, their legs dangling in the water as they watched the guys play. Katie was pretty sure that they could care less about what the score was or who was winning, just as long as they had the girls' attention. No matter if their giant group of friends was just hanging out, the guys always seemed to find a way to get into a stupid argument, hoping that they had the girls' attention for even a few minutes. That's what Lizzie had told her anyway, when they had first started the game.

"I don't get it though," Katie had said, the two of them standing in line for smoothies and frozen yogurt. "It's a stupid volleyball game. They have a better chance of impressing them by lifting weights at the gym."

"And this is why you need my expertise around all the time," Lizzie said. She put her arm around Katie's shoulders. "Because no matter what guys are doing, nine times out of ten, if there's a girl around, they want to try and impress her." She grabbed onto Katie's shoulders tightly, the brightest smile ever on her face. "Speaking of how did Kendall's and Riley's date go?"

Katie smirked. She hadn't seen her brother so happy. From what she could tell, they weren't official or anything, and they didn't seem to act any different around each other, but there was definitely something there. She seemed a bit more patient with his antics, but couldn't give up her trait or annoying or teasing him any chance she got. "You're tired of hearing about mine already?"

"I like to hear about _everyone's_ love life," Lizzie reminded her. "I'm a girl! I need the gossip! I _live_ off of gossip."

"And boys and clothes and boys and clothes," Katie replied. "And did I mention boys?"

"Hey!" Lizzie looked offended. "I like a lot of other things too. I like rollerblading, and surfing, and baking, and soccer, and music, and movies." She stopped counting her fingers and threw her hands into the air. "At least I'm not obsessed with money, now _that's_ weird!"

The two girls then laughed and got their drinks and food and reclined in two empty pool chairs to watch the guys' game. They had managed to go while in their conversation without talking about Patrick or Katie's date in general. Of course, Lizzie had to bring it up again. Now she understood why the older girls talked about it a lot, there was always something that you needed to analyze or worry about when it came to dating. She and Patrick had gone out and things didn't really seem to change between them after that. She expected a lot of attention to suddenly be showered upon her, to get a lot of gifts, and have to worry about PDA like movies and TV shows had shown her. But like the rest of the world showed her, TV wasn't real life and real life was unpredictable.

"Yeah, he, Noah, and Patrick are all working late today," Katie replied. "Which is sort of weird since they're taking the year off. But whatever." She shook her head before dropping her hands into her lap. Biting her lower lip, she bent her head, allowing her hair to cover her face. "And I don't know what I'm going to say. What does anyone say after they see someone for the first time after a date?" It was times like these she wished she was a bit closer to her Mom, so she would have someone to talk to about this sort of thing. Lizzie didn't seem to understand her worries about it at all, hell, if Katie could guess, Lizzie's first date probably went so smoothly. It would make sense as to how she was so good at being a flirt most of the time.

"Uh…'hi'?" Lizzie prompted.

Katie wrinkled her nose. "It sounds so lame though.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you!" Lizzie leaned forward and grabbed onto Katie's hands. "You're starting to care about the way you appear around other people!" She wiped away a pretend tear. "I knew this day would come!"

"Oh, knock it off!" Katie laughed.

"But you changed your hair and everything," Lizzie continued. Katie looked down at her outfit. It wasn't _that_ different was it? Just a purple tank-top with a white, billowy vest over it, jean shorts that went to her knees-she still wasn't ready for short shorts yet-and her flip flops. "Are they…" Lizzie hesitated.

_Probably so she doesn't sound critical. _Katie frowned.

"Your clothes?" Lizzie's eyes narrowed.

"No, they're Rhu's," Katie admitted.

_When the girls had arrived at the crib earlier that day, to go to the pool with the guys, Rhuben had brought over a bag of clothes for Katie to wear. They were getting too small for her, as Rhuben had noted, and she thought that Katie would like them because they were purple, their common favorite color. Katie took the bag gleefully, though Kendall looked at his friend and co-worker with a look that a worried brother only could._

_"Relax, Kenny," Rhuben said, patting him on the stomach. "It's not any clothes that you have to worry about, just tank tops and shorts and stuff."_

_"Big Brother much?" Riley added. She tilted her head to the side. "And I'm talking about the entity of the book, not you, though there isn't much of a difference."_

_"I take pride in that, actually," Kendall said. "Sure, she may hate me later on, but then I know I'm doing a good job." He gave her a peaceful smile. Riley eyed him warily. "What?"_

_"Trying to figure out if I'm supposed to feel offended, Hockey-Head," Riley said. Her face relaxed and her eyes flashed. "Lucky for you, I don't." She shifted the towel in her arms, quickly smiling at him before addressing everyone. "So are we going to the pool or what?"_

_"Yeah, I'm ready to get some sun!" Camille added. She stretched her arms over her head. "I've been stuck in New York for the past couple of days for auditions and it did nothing but rain. It's probably the only time that I'm happy that it barely rains here."_

_Katie smiled and laughed with everyone, but glanced over at Logan. He and Camille had broken up a lot and gotten back together just as many times. It was a bit weird to see that they could act normally around each other and their friends so shortly afterwards. Katie took the bag from Rhuben's hand and went to put it in her room. Rhuben followed her._

_"What's up with you?" Rhuben pulled her hair back into a ponytail, sitting down on the end of Katie's bed as she placed the bag in a corner of the room. "You like to go to the pool just as much as the rest of us do and you barely said a word." She raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me that K-Dawg's freakishly overprotective tendencies are finally starting to get to you."_

_"No." Katie shook her head. She sighed, dropping onto her bed. "Why is dating so weird?"_

_"What d'you mean?" Rhuben shifted to face her completely. Her eyebrows lowered into a mix of a glare and a suspicious look. "Did Patrick do something stupid? I mean, he usually does, but under stressful situations he gets worse. He can be an asshole sometimes."_

_"No, he's fine," Katie said. She blushed when the double intender of that reached her brain. "The date was fun. He even remembered my favorite combo at the movies without having to remind him. I just thought that things would be more like a…like a movie I guess."_

_"Well, you can't base everything off of movies," Rhuben said. She gave Katie a gentle smile. "I get what you mean though; I felt the same way after my first date. Granted, I was younger than you are now, but I understand he sentiment. And the guys are giving you a hard time about it too, right?"_

_Katie nodded._

_"All guys do that to their sisters, they're just showing that they care," Rhuben explained. "Just let them know that if they annoy you too much that they're have to answer to me, alright?" Her eyebrows twitched as she smirked. "They'll stop after that, I promise."_

_"Thanks, Rhu." Katie smiled._

_"No worries, Katie." Her blue eyes moved over to the bag in the corner of the room then shifted back over to Katie. Under her purple shaded lids, her eyes sparkled mischievously. "At the risk of giving Kendall a heart attack, do you want to try something on?"_

_"Um. Ok."_

Katie tried on Rhuben's clothes and nervously left her room, thinking that the guys were going to say something. But they seemed to be preoccupied with going to the pool because they barely glanced at her before they went charging out of the crib. She had been glad that no one said anything, but now that Lizzie did, her anxiety just came back.

"Does it look weird?" Katie started to smooth her hair down. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. "I thought it did, but Rhu said it looked good and Riles said she liked it and-"

"Whoa, Katie, relax! It looks fine." Lizzie smiled. "I was just asking because they looked familiar." She pulled her blonde hair behind her ears. "Anyway, let's get out of here, I'm tired of watching and there are no cute boys around here." She smiled sweetly. "Besides you brother of course." At Katie's look of disgust, Lizzie laughed. "So you can crush on my brother but I can't crush on yours."

"No," Katie said flatly. "Besides, Riles already has him and she'd kick your ass if you go anywhere near him. Whether or not they're dating now or are still just best friends or whatever." Lizzie shrugged, not too worried about it.

"Well, let's go to the park or something, or to the movie store or _something_!" Lizzie turned so that she was sitting on the side of the pool chair. "Let's go wreak some havoc!"

At that, Katie burst out laughing. "_You_ wreak havoc? Yeah, I'd love to see that!" Katie shook her head, still laughing at her friend. That's how they were different, Katie liked to cause mischief and Lizzie liked to look at magazines. Yeah, there were times that Katie got jealous of Lizzie and the way she looked and carried herself, but there were a lot of things that Lizzie couldn't do that Katie could.

Lizzie gave her a peaceful smile. "You know, I like that about you, Katie."

"What?" Katie looked at her warily.

"Your street smarts," Lizzie said matter of fact. "What other girl knows how to swindle everyone out of their money? Who else knows how to con almost everyone she meets to get things to go the way she wants? Who else knows how to defend herself or who to trust just by looking at them? Who else can call someone out on their crap just like you did to me?" She shrugged. "I wish that I could do that."

Katie was silent for a moment. And here she thought Lizzie had everything she wanted. She didn't think that she was jealous of her too. Not in a million years. _Well, I guess there's a first time for everything. _Katie got to her feet and kicked off her sandals. Lizzie followed her lead and the two stripped down to their bathing suits and went over to the pool.

"Nice bathing suit." Katie turned to see Victoria standing behind her, a large pair of sunglasses over her eyes and a towel draped over her shoulder. Her hair was wet and hanging in stringy strands around her face, though her makeup was perfect. "It looks like the one that I wore two years ago." She looked Katie up and down. "It doesn't surprise me that you're behind the times."

"Isn't it great?" Lizzie jumped in. "It's retro-chic, don't you think? Katie's always been quick to pick up on the latest trends." Lizzie hooked her arm through Katie's and led her away from Victoria, who was left speechless. "You're welcome."

"Thank you."

"So, can we play?" Katie asked, bending down to grab onto the pool's edge before jumping in. "This is way too boring, just watching you guys." She swam over to her brother. "What do you say, Big Brother? Team Knight going for the win?"

"You know it!" Kendall agreed, giving her a high-five. Katie grinned back at her brother as the others were split into the teams. It was Kendall, Katie, Riley, Stephanie, and Rhuben against Jo, Camille, Lizzie, Logan, Carlos, and James.

As they played the game, amongst screams of frustration and bursts of laughter, Katie could see Victoria watching her, a burning intensity in her eyes. Katie ignored her the best she could, it was the most amount of fun that she's had in a while and she didn't want anything to spoil it. She didn't notice that Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had arrived until Kendall lifted her up to score a spike over the net. Amongst the cries of outrage from James, Logan, and Carlos, she could hear clapping from the three guys.

"Hey, Kates, can I talk to you for a minute?" Patrick waved her over.

"Sure." Katie felt her face enflame when she heard the teasing calls that Carlos sent her way. Kendall quickly shut him with a wave of water in his face. Patrick held out his hand and Katie grabbed onto it, allowing the help to be pulled out of the pool. He handed over her towel with a warm smile, causing her face to turn even redder. "What's up?"

"I have a…strange question to ask," Patrick said slowly. He ran a hand through his hair then crossed his arms over his chest, looking at her intently. "I have a therapy session that's coming up soon and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me." He rolled his eyes. "Ronan thinks I should make one sooner, but whatever."

"Really?" Katie's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. He wanted her to go with him to a therapy session. Not even the guys went to their therapy session, they had never been asked as far as she knew. Why did he want her to go now? There had been so many other times that he could have asked, so what was so different this time? "Why me? Why not one of the other guys?"

Patrick smirked, looking her up and down. "I figured that was obvious." When Katie looked away from him, he chuckled. "Anyone ever tell you that you blush too easily?" She scowled. "I mean, it's cute, but still. I'd probably have to only say something like I creamed myself and you'd blush."

Katie's eyebrows lowered and she looked at him. "What?"

Patrick's eyes widened. "You don't know what that means?" When Katie shook her head, he burst out laughing, clutching his stomach. "That's priceless. But don't tell Kendall I said that or he and James would have a bounty over my head." He suddenly snapped, pointing at her. "And don't ask me what it means either, because I think you'd need to clean your brain with bleach if I ever told you."

"Why is everyone treating me like a little kid lately?" Katie pulled her towel closer around her body.

Patrick reached out and wiped a drop of water off of her cheek. "Because you're cute, sweetheart, I didn't think it was that hard to find out," he said, matter-of-fact. Katie opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the sound of his phone letting out its text tone. He pulled his cell phone and glanced at the text. His face immediately darkened.

Katie recognized the face. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"Please." He went over to Noah, who was talking to Stephanie and Carlos. "Cover for me?" Noah looked like he wasn't about to answer, wanting him to come up with something himself, but then nodded. "Thanks, I owe you one, Buddy." He slapped Noah on the shoulder and waited for Katie to slip on her clothes before leading her outside.

Patrick's fingers twitched at his sides and he clenched his hands into fists. He always got a bit of an adrenaline rush when it came to things like this. Anything that could prove that he wasn't so much of a goofball like people thought he was. He could be serious and driven when he wanted to be. His music showed that despite what his image showed. His image portrayed him as a bad boy and he was treated that way most of the time, other times he was treated like he couldn't ever be serious.

_I try my hardest to prove them wrong on all accounts. _Patrick slowed his walk as they approached the playground. _But maybe they're right. What I'm doing isn't very smart and it does play into the bad boy factor. What if I really am like this? What if Robert made me this way?_

Once they arrived at the park, Patrick immediately walked over to the dome jungle gym. Jared was inside with a guy that he knew by the name of Andy. Derrick was standing off to the side; he nodded over at Patrick and Katie as they approached the jungle gym. Patrick nodded back. Reaching up, he pulled his lip rings out and handed them over to Katie before taking off his rings and doing the same thing.

"Are you sure about this?" Katie's question caused him to pause for a moment as he prepared. She asked the same thing each time they went to the park, but this time it sounded different. He risked a glance at her face, then immediately regretted it, seeing the anxiety.

He tried to calm her down with a one-armed hug. "I'm sure. No worries." He winked at her. "I don't lose, remember?" He pulled off his shirt and handed it over to her before ducking into the dome. "So what's going on this time?"

"Got another guy that wants to challenge you." Jared tilted his head over to Andy.

_What guy wouldn't want to have the chance to beat up a rock star? _Patrick nodded and reached out, shaking Andy's hand. Andy's grip was firm, crushing Patrick's fingers together. Taking a step back, Patrick's eyes narrowed in a glare. Something was off here.

"What d'you want to bet?' Jared prompted.

Patrick lifted his lightning bolt necklace off of his neck and slapped it into Jared's hand, his eyes locked onto Andy's. Andy took out of cell phone and ipod and put them into Jared's other hand. Jared looked at them both studying them, and then nodded. He backed up to a safe corner of the dome. Patrick rolled his shoulders in a circle and turned around to face Katie. Grabbing a rung of the dome he leaned towards her.

"I hope you're not doing this to impress me," she said.

Patrick held an apathetic on his normally sunny face. Then he slowly smiled. "You'll never know," he said mysteriously. Then his smile faded and he looked concerned. "Do you think my mum and dad would be proud of me?" Katie gaped at him. He knew why. It was the first time that he had mentioned his parents to her apart from the offhand comment here and there. Otherwise, he never talked about them or about whether or not they were proud of him. At all. If it wasn't for looking them up on the internet (who said that she couldn't research them after they researched her brother and his friends when they first met) she wouldn't even know what their names were. He lowered his gaze. "Never mind."

"Pat, you don't have to-"

Patrick turned and walked away from her, back over to Andy who watched his every move, with a calculated stare. Patrick smirked at Andy and brought his hands up beside his face, falling into the boxing stance that he was used to. It was his favorite form of being able to work out, being able to build his strength up and get some of his pent up frustration out. He was the one that always tried to make his brothers and sisters happy, to laugh, and to forget their problems. Sometimes they forgot that he had problems too.

"Ok, we got the normal rules for this fight!" Jared called. "When you're ready?" Both boys nodded.

_This one's for you, Dad._

"Go!"

Patrick tuned out the screaming and cheering behind him and waited for Andy to make the first move. You had the advantage if the other person made the first move, that way you could see what was coming. It was better than doing it yourself and having him block you, which would set the mood for the rest of the fight. Patrick jumped as Andy aimed a kick at his legs. Landing back on his feet, Patrick shifted his weight forward and slammed into Andy's chest. Andy grabbed his chest and backed away a few spaces. Patrick took the opportunity to jump up and wrap his legs around Andy's neck in a scissor kick, twisting his body and using his momentum to twist them to the ground.

He was glad at the gymnastics training that he used for his band or else it wouldn't have ended as well. _The training that we had to go through when Robert pushed us so hard._ Once the two were on the ground, fists were flying. Patrick felt a few blows land on his back; otherwise his didn't feel a thing. He never felt anything until hours later. He was in the zone. _Don't back down now. _Patrick leaned back smashed his fist into the side of Andy's face three, four, five times before backing away from him. He waited to see if Andy was going to fight back. His bare chest heaved up and down with effort as he waited. Andy rolled over until he was sitting and then shook his head, holding up his hands.

Game Over.

_Are you proud of me now? I can take care of everyone. You don't have to worry about us. _"Cake," Patrick muttered. He smiled to himself and turned, grabbing his winnings from Jared's hands. He pulled the necklace back over his neck. The little lightning bolt charms rested against his chest, the metal cool against his burning skin. It glinted in the sunlight. Wiping sweat off of his forehead, he started to pace the dome like a restless lion.

"Does anyone else want a go against our undefeated champ?" Jared called after escorting Andy out of the ring. His back turned to them; Patrick missed the looks they gave each other. Shouts of encouragement rose above the crowd. As Patrick continued to pace, he caught Katie's eye again.

"You don't have to do this," Katie tried. Her hands were gripping the metal bars so hard that her knuckles and fingers were white. Her hazel eyes were wide, but her lower lip was trembling. Though she was shaking, and her face showed the epitome of fear, she held a strong tone to her voice. Something else that she could do but Lizzie couldn't. It was the same tone of voice she generally used with Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James; strong and a bit condescending at the same time. "All they want to do is-"

Suddenly, Patrick snapped. "SHUT UP!" He hollered at her.

All the fight went out of him when he saw the shocked look on Katie's face. She took a step back. _Away_ from him. He didn't want that. He just…wanted to prove that he was strong. That he was good enough. He needed to be good enough. He needed to prove that he could take care of his siblings. Patrick's shoulders slumped and he looked at his feet in shock. That was it. As usual, everything stemmed back to what happened with Robert. He didn't think that it would have gotten that bad. He didn't realize how selfish he had been until that moment. How much danger he was putting her in. Kendall would probably never forgive her if he found out about it. Now he understood the disappointment that Ronan felt, instead of using his brothers and sisters to help him deal with his problems…with Robert's abuse on them, he made them keep everything a secret if anyone ever asked.

Patrick sucked in a deep breath. He walked over to the edge of the dome. Slipping out, he turned and meekly walked over to Katie. She gazed at him, a questioning look in her eyes. He smiled and reached out, grabbing onto her hand, squeezing it tightly in his. Katie continued to look at him, only relaxing when he gave her his famous lopsided smile. Katie smiled back and Patrick wedged his fingers in between hers, gently rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

"Let's go," he said.

"Ok." Now there was a sweet edge to her tone, something that the guys or her friends didn't hear very often. James swore he heard it when Katie admitted that she thought of him as a brother (after he ruined her date to the 'make out movie') and when she was helping him out when he was trying to get the job of the Barracuda spokes model. It was something that was usually reserved for Kendall or her Mom, no one else.

"I don't think so." Derrick's voice caused Patrick to freeze. There was something sinister under his tone. Patrick finally took his gaze away from Katie's face and his eyes slowly went from face to face. Everyone that had waited for a fight grinned back at him.

He remembered it now, the unspoken rule of fighting. He had reminded Sydney of it many times when he was trying to teach him how to defend himself, something that Riley and Rhuben had been against from the beginning. It was a bit ironic though, they didn't want their brothers to do the same things that they did when they were back in Australia, but he fell into it anyway. That was something that he did share with Riley, though he showed it in a different way. He was a bit overly aggressive when it came to sports, almost continuously getting kicked out of soccer games that he would participate in. He rarely ever showed it when he was angry, and regretted it each time he did.

_Never turn your back on a fight unless you know for sure that you can get away. Either that or don't get into it in the first place. _

Those words were coming back to haunt him now.

He started to sniff, as if trying to keep his nose from running. His nervous habit. "Shit!" Patrick held out his arm in front of Katie, backing up a couple of steps. His dark blue eyes darted around, dread causing his heart to sink.

They were surrounded with no way out.

* * *

**A/N: **I had to get back to the point of the story some time. I purposefully switched from Katie's POV to Patrick's as the chapter went you guys liked the chapter. The chapters will focus more on Patrick as they go on, since I haven't really shown a lot of him or the Jacksons, but I'll try to keep it balanced. Let me know if you were confused with what I had going on with Patrick.

I was thinking of re-writing _Do It All Again_ one more time as a sequel to this story, but also bringing in the idea I had for _Big Sister _as well. But if I do that, some of what I had planned for this story would have to change as well as it showing more of the older kids rather than this one being completely focused on Katie. If I don't do _Big Sister_ in it, then I'll either make it a sequel to _Do It All Again_ or just leave it as its own story.

Also, recently we got the comment that we don't show how the Jacksons really are close, I didn't show it in this story either since it was brought up before I could finish. The rest of this story doesn't do it a lot, but it'll happen more with _Memories and Melodies_, _It's Times Like These_ and all of my future stories. So, sorry about that.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	11. (and) Roll

**.:Chapter 11:.**

* * *

Katie had never felt his helpless before.

She, normally, was able to hold her own. She had never been afraid to defend herself if she needed to. Hell that was part of the reason why she started to take boxing classes. Actually, when she had the choice, Mrs. Knight had gotten fed up over how many times she had been kicked out of field hockey games because she would get too aggressive. Ballet wasn't an option, she had openly laughed at the boys for hours when she found out that Brooke Diamond had forced them into it. When Mrs. Knight asked if she wanted to try figure skating, so she could be around the ice more like her brother, she turned that down too. Not only did she think it was crazy, who could do that many spins without puking, she didn't want to let Kendall down. At the time, he had a thing against figure skaters and she didn't want to become one. Not when hockey players and figure skaters were at each other's throats and not when Minnesota was a hockey state.

So she stuck with boxing. Then it was Mrs. Knight's turn to be vocally against it. She didn't want her little girl to get hurt. After sitting on the sidelines and watching her first lesson with the physical trainer, she saw no problems with it and allowed Katie to continue. Having that skill under her belt would prove that she didn't have to worry so much about her daughter. If she had seen her now, surrounded with a threat hanging in the air, she would fall into Mama Bear mode and want to try and protect her the best she could.

It was the first time in a long time that Katie had the overwhelming sense of wanting her Mom to protect her.

Katie glanced over at Patrick, getting a glimpse of his face. His jaw was clenched, save for the times that he would sniff loudly. His dark eyes darted around the clearing, looking for a way out of the dome. He was stuck on the inside and she on the outside. Her heart raced, a wave of nausea washed over her. Her hazel eyes darted around the dome, noticing that all eyes were on Patrick, not on her. She had to think of something fast.

"We don't think that this was a fair fight," Derrick continued. He nodded over o Andy, who was leaning against the dome, breathing heavily. Katie's eyes narrowed, seeing a smile slide onto Andy's face when Derrick spoke. "All of us are tired of you winning all the time."

"Someone's gotta win," Patrick said slowly. "I've just been having a good streak."

"Yes, well, unfortunately, that's going to end," Derrick continued.

Katie held her breath. It seemed that everyone around her was doing the same. All of the good natured shouting and cheering was gone. She felt nothing but icy cold rising in waves around her. All eyes were on Patrick and Derrick. They weren't friendly anymore.

_C'mon Katie, think_! She hated how frozen she was. _You usually can talk your way out of anything. You're smarter than this. You have to help him somehow._

"What's that supposed to mean?" Patrick's grip tightened on Katie's hand. All of a sudden, she felt a hand grab the back of her shirt and she was ripped away from him. Feeling her hand leave his, he turned his head to see what happened. At that moment, Katie's hands were wrenched behind her back and she felt an arm wrap around her neck. "Katie!"

"Don't worry about her," Derrick's voice cut across the night.

"Let go!" Katie struggled to get away. Her cry was choked off at the end when the arm pressed tighter against her neck. Tears sprang up in her eyes as she sucked in a desperate gasp for air. They started to fall down her cheeks as she struggled harder.

"What do you want?" Patrick's hands clenched into fists, turning back to Derrick.

"You've gotten a lot of stuff from us over the past couple of months," Derrick said. He stepped closer to Patrick, the smirk never leaving his face. "And considering you're such a big rockstar and everything, we don't' think that it's fair. We should get something from you."

"Dude, whatever you want, you can have it." Patrick held his hands up to appear less intimidating. "Just let Katie go."

Derrick's eyes flicked over to Katie. She glared back at him. One more twist to the side, trying to get away, and let out a gasp as a line of pain flashed across her back. She had been hit. Not hard enough to cause a bruise, but hard enough for it to hurt. From the snickers behind her, she could tell that it was a hit that didn't use as much power that was possible. These were guys that had been fighting for a long time, and they fought dirty, there were no rules. If they wanted to hurt her, they really could.

"Stop it!" Patrick's voice held a tone of desperation.

"We'll stop as soon as we get to repay you," Derrick said. There was a sudden shift in the atmosphere around them. The temperature dropped though the sun was still high enough in the sky to warm them. Jared seemed to have noticed the change in his voice, the malice, for he suddenly looked worried.

"Derrick, that's enough," he said. His voice shook lightly. "All we wanted to do was scare him, to knock him off his high horse."

"Sorry, but that's not enough for me." Derrick snarled. Patrick continued to watch him, only moving his eyes. Every now and then, he would glance at the side, watching Katie. She gave him a reassuring smile, hoping that it would help him somehow. "I'm sick and tired of you celebrities acting like you can go around and get whatever you want!" On the last word, he punched Patrick across the face. Patrick stumbled, but didn't fall down. Katie watched, holding her breath. Blood roared in her ears, her mouth felt dry like cotton, she felt the overwhelming need to puke.

Derrick grabbed Patrick by the arm and punched him in the face again. Patrick turned his head to the side and spat on the ground. His saliva was lightly tinged pink, blood started to drip out of his nose. He wiped it away and backed up as Derrick started to send out a barrage of punches and kicks. Patrick ducked and weaved out of the way, fists and feet flying towards his head and face. Jared moved to pull Derrick back, but got a fist to the face as well. He backed away, rubbing his jaw. Due to the misfire, Patrick took the opportunity to lash back out, smacking Derrick in the side with his foot.

_Bad idea. _Katie recognized the look of fury that flashed over Derrick's face and before he knew it, he had tackled Patrick to the ground and the two were scrapping with each other, arms and legs flying. Instead of fighting back, Patrick was doing his best to keep Derrick from landing blows on him. He waited for the opportune moment to lash out, hitting him in the sides, rather than the head. However, each time Patrick would land a blow; it seemed to make Derrick even angrier.

Katie glanced behind her for a moment and then shot her head back. She heard a cracking sound and then a scream of pain. Her hands were free! She swung them up in front of her and grabbed the arm that was around her neck. Moving her head forward, she sank her teeth into the arm until she tasted blood. The arm loosened around her neck and she tightened her grip with both hands. Leaning forward, she pulled on the arm until the guy was flung over her shoulder, flipping onto the guy onto his back on the ground. Katie then spun around and shoved her fist into the stomach of the other teenage boy, as she held onto his nose.

It was chaos after that. Screaming and shouting, she could hear footsteps and loud curses as well as laughter mixed in with all of it. She blocked all of that out of her head and ducked under the rungs of the dome, climbing inside as fast as she could. Rushing past Jared, she reached Patrick's side and hauled off, punching Derrick on the side of the head. "Leave him alone!" She cried, glaring at him.

Derrick turned to her. "You made a mistake, little girl."

Katie stood her ground. "Don't even try it," she warned. "I already called the police." She was lying through her teeth; she hoped that he didn't know it. She kept up a brave face as well as she could, though she was shaking inside. In fact, her whole body was shaking bad enough that she wasn't sure if she was having a seizure. Katie kneeled down by Patrick side, grabbing onto his arm. "Are you ok?"

He glanced at her, but didn't reply.

Derrick grinned. "So let em' come." His chest heaved up and down. He looked down at Patrick and kneeled down at his other side. "I proved my point." He reached out and grabbed onto Patrick's lightning bolt necklace. Under her hands, Katie could feel Patrick tense up. "Now I can get my prize."

"No," Patrick croaked. "You can have anything but that." Weakly, he reached up his hands and grabbed onto Derrick's wrist, trying to stop him. But the blood he had tried to wipe off his face made his grip weak and Derrick continued to pull. "Please, don't take-"He let out a gasp of surprise as the necklace ripped from around his neck.

Chuckling to himself, Derrick stood up, shoving the necklace into his pocket. He turned to walk away, and then turned back, aiming one last kick into Patrick's side. Patrick let out a groan of pain, rolling into Katie's lap, holding onto her waist. His eyes were clenched tightly together and he was breathing through his teeth.

"Dude, that's enough!" Jared grabbed onto Derrick's shoulder and pulled him back. "You've gone too far!"

Derrick turned on his heel and left the dome, walking out of the playground. All of the other teenagers had run away, leaving Patrick, Katie, and Jared by themselves. Patrick rolled onto his other side and spat on the ground, clearing blood out of his mouth. He struggled to his feet and Jared and Katie grabbed onto his arms, helping him up.

"I can handle it myself!" Katie glared at Jared.

Jared didn't say anything, he continued to hold onto Patrick's arm .The three shuffled over to the opening and passed Patrick through before climbing out themselves. Jared walked with them all the way back to the PalmWoods. Patrick's arms were flung over Jared's and Katie's shoulders, his head bent towards the ground. It was slow going, but he didn't seem to have anything broken, though he was trying his hardest not to put any weight on his right leg. When they got to the PalmWoods, Patrick directed them over to the bike rack with in a low mumble.

"We need to get you to a hospital or even just a doctor or something," Jared said.

"I'm fine," Patrick replied. He grabbed onto his handle bars and looked at the ground for a long moment, as if he couldn't focus. He shook his head and then lifted it, giving a small glimpse of his lopsided smile. "I'm ok. Trust me." He looked directly at Katie this time. "I'm ok."

Katie opened her mouth to protest, and then stopped. She knew how stubborn the Jacksons could be when they put their mind to something. To them, for the most part, the world was black and white, right and wrong, good and bad. When they got their mind stuck on something, you had a really hard time changing it. She could beg and plead that he went to the doctor, but he was not going to go unless he had a gun strapped to his head.

"I'll text you when I get home," Patrick added. He swung his leg over the bike seat and sat down, wincing as he put his foot up onto the pedal. Once he was settled, he leaned into Katie's face, being sure that he had her undivided attention. "Please…please don't tell anyone. I'll be ok."

"Ok." Katie nodded. She wanted to force him to stay, she knew she could do it; she could be that intimidating if she wanted to be. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James had definitely fallen for it before. Even, jokingly, Patrick and Noah had done it as well, though they probably didn't see her to be intimidating in the slightest. "Fine."

"Thanks." Patrick looked like he was about to say something else, but turned his attention back to his bike. He glanced at Jared. "Thanks," he repeated. Jared nodded back and Patrick picked up his left foot and placed it on the pedal. With another wince, he pressed down and started biking down the street.

"I hope you know that I was telling the truth," Jared said quietly. "We only wanted to scare him; I didn't think it'd get that far."

Katie ignored him. Turning on her heel, she went inside the PalmWoods, heading towards the crib. Her head swam and felt heavy. To put it simply, she didn't know what to do. She wanted to be there for him, but on the other hand, she didn't want to betray him. He and his siblings had managed to keep their abuse that went on for almost ten years, a secret, how hard could it be to keep this a secret as well. Especially since his siblings knew, they could help him, right? Katie let out a groan of frustration, grabbing onto her hair. Now she understood how Kendall and Logan felt at the beginning. Knowing everything they needed to know to help, but not sure what to do because they were begged not to.

_God, I hate this. _Katie walked into the crib, her eyes scanning the area. Thankfully, only Logan was sitting in the main area, on the couch. His laptop was on his lap and he had textbooks and notebooks sitting around him, though he wasn't using them. He had a smile on his face, his cell phone pressed to his ear. He looked up and waved to Katie as she slowly walked over to him.

"Where is everyone?" She rubbed her hands over each other.

"Could you hold on a minute?" Logan said into the phone. He lowered it to his shoulder. "Kendall, James and Carlos are in their rooms doing the homework that they've been putting off. Mrs. Knight is with them, making sure that they're doing it."

"Oh." Katie nodded. "Who are you talking to?"

Logan hesitated for a moment before giving a sheepish smile, as if already knowing how she was going to react to what he was going to say. "I'm talking to Rhu. We were just talking about-"

Katie raised a hand to her forehead. She was starting to get a headache. "I don't understand how any of you guys can even function sometimes. Didn't you just break up with Camille?" Her eyes widened. "Please don't tell me."

"Katie, we're just talking," Logan defended himself.

"Talking always leads to something else," Katie said. "Don't get me wrong, I like you and Rhu together. To be honest, probably bit more than you and Camille and that's only because I think Camille is completely crazy when she's not cool." Logan smiled a little. "I really don't get why you can't just…" she sighed. She definitely wasn't one to talk about not being able to make a decision. That wasn't the most of her worries. _I'm sure I have blood on me. How has he not noticed it? _"Never mind. Um. I know that you like both of them…but if you actually _liked_ either of them, you wouldn't have a problem choosing. I said the same thing to Kendall…I hope that helps. I hope you two get together, really I do."

Logan put the phone back to his ear for a moment before lowering it again."She heard what you said,"

"Good." Katie rubbed her nose and smiled. "If I can set Kendall up, I can help you too." She rubbed the back of her neck, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. Her adrenaline was going away and she was starting to crash. _Patrick's not home yet, maybe I can warn the others. _"Can I talk to her?"

"Sure." Logan handed over the phone to her. Katie put it up to her ear and opened her mouth, but stopped, slowly closing it again. She dropped her arm, looking at the caller ID on the phone, focusing on it. She couldn't do it. He asked her not to say anything and as much as she hated it, she wasn't going to say anything. "Never mind." She gave the phone back to Logan, who looked confused. "Just tell her that she has me to thank if you guys get married."

"Katie-"

Katie turned on her heel and hurried to her room. She closed the door behind her and leapt onto her bed, burying her face into her pillows.

She started to cry.

* * *

Patrick dropped his bike in the grass and walked up the front steps. Pulling his keys from his pocket, he carefully unlocked the front door and slipped inside. He let out a frustrated sigh, seeing the light in the living room on and the TV playing the late night news. That meant that Ronan was still up, as opposed to being in his room, looking through e-mails or reading before bed. So he couldn't go to the kitchen to get ice or else he would surely be caught.

"Hey Ronan, I'm back!" Patrick called.

"Hey, Tricky, I thought that you were going to be back earlier," Ronan called back. "I'm guessing that Katie really needed help with her homework." The teasing lift to his tone wasn't lost on Patrick. He would have laughed or even smiled if he wasn't afraid of his face practically falling apart if he moved his mouth too far.

"You're hysterical, Ronan, really," Patrick deadpanned. "All your old man jokes are killing me." He let out a fake yawn. "I'm just going to go to bed. We have to get up early for a workout tomorrow and I'm definitely going to need some sleep after tonight." He backed towards the stairs, keeping his eyes on the living room._ Please don't get up. Please don't get up. _His hand moved to his neck to grab onto his necklace, then his arm dropped limply to his side, remembering that it wasn't there anymore. _Dad's gonna kill me. _Numbly, Patrick turned on his heels and slowly walked up the stairs to his room.

Noah was lying in his top bunk, his back to Patrick. Closing the door behind him, Patrick looked up to see Noah had turned around to face him. "I'm surprised Ronan believed that I was helping Katie with homework since I'm not great at it either."

"I had to make it believable somehow," Noah defended himself. "So I told him you were helping with history homework. It's like, the only thing you're good at anyway." He smiled, expecting Patrick to smile back, and then frowned when Patrick shuffled over to his bed. "What's wrong?" His voice quivered slightly. "What happened?" Noah vaulted over the side of his bed and landed on the floor with a dull thud, bending his knees to take in the blow. Patrick looked up at him and Noah's eyes widened when he caught sight of his brother's face. "I was wondering why I suddenly got a headache. I knew something was wrong. I told you not to go!"

Patrick held up a hand. "Dude, you're babbling." The movement caused him to curl in on himself. He breathed heavily, waiting for the pain to subside. There was a throbbing pain on his right; he may have broken a rib. "It's probably the most I've ever heard you talk at once, Buddy." Noah didn't laugh at the joke. "Relax, I'm ok."

"Every time one of us says that we're ok, we're lying through our teeth," Noah reminded him.

"This time I'm not lying through my teeth." Patrick paused for dramatic effect before grinning. "I'm lying through the pain." He chuckled. Noah gave an impatient sigh.

"What's going on?" Sydney pushed open the door. "I heard a noise." He caught sight of his older brothers and his face wilted into a frown, his lower jaw sticking out slightly. He hated to see anyone hurt or upset. "What happened to your face?" He shrugged. "As opposed to usual."

"See?" Patrick pointed at Sydney, keeping his eyes on his twin. "He can make a joke out of this."

"I was being serious," Sydney replied. He trotted closer to Patrick to get a good look. After a long moment of staring, he turned and wrapped his arms around Noah's waist, putting his face in his side. "You weren't helping Katie with homework were you? You went back to fight those guys?" Patrick slowly nodded. "Why'd you do that? You don't have anything to prove!"

"Yes, I do," Patrick said slowly. "I have a lot of things to prove."

"To us?" Sydney demanded.

"No, not to you." Patrick licked his lips. They stung where they had been busted open. "Not really. It's complicated." He moved to stand up, but the muscles in his back seized and he collapsed back down, his hands in front of him, his arms locked in a tight position. His eyes slammed shut and when his muscles relaxed his shoulders dropped. He let out a weary sigh.

Noah clicked his tongue. "Go get Riles and Rhubes and get an ice pack," he directed. Sydney nodded before hurrying out f the room.

"No, don't do that," Patrick said weakly.

"Don't do what?" Noah snapped. His eyes snapped with a cool fury that as seldom ever seen. "Care about my brother? You're not that much of a boofhead, Pat. Stop acting like it." He tilted Patrick's head back to look at his eyes. The door opened again and all five siblings crowded into Patrick's and Noah's room.

"Geez, Riles, do you ever sleep?" Patrick tried not to focus on the pain. "I'm starting to think that you're the vampire, not Rhubes." Rhuben made a hissing sound, pointing a warning finger at him, and tossed Noah an ice pack. He grabbed it and held it to Patrick's face.

"No, I'm the werewolf, remember?" Riley said dryly.

"I can still prove that," Patrick said.

"Pat!" Riley, Rhuben, Noah, and Sydney all snapped. He gave a fleeting smile then it faded again. He sucked in a deep breath and let out a groan, wrapping both arms around his stomach. "Son of a bitch!" Sydney's eyes narrowed and he walked over to his brother. Pushing his arms out of the way, he lifted the bottom of his shirt.

"You can be a boofhead, weasel, but this is dangerous." Rhuben kneeled by Patrick's side and started to prove at his sides with her fingers. He jumped away when she touched his right side. "I can't tell, but you might have a broken bone, the bruising is pretty bad." She stood up, pushing her hair out of her face. Chewing her lower lip, she thought for a moment. "We're taking you to the hospital; I'm going to get Ronan."

"No, Rhu, don't," Patrick pleaded.

Rhuben spun around, her eyes flashing. "You're going to a fucking hospital! I don't care what you have to say about it." Her eyes moved over to Riley, who had been strangely quiet the whole exchange. Normally she would have been the one that would have snapped at him, telling him exactly what he was going to do when he was going to do it.

"Go get him," she finally said. But Rhuben had already reached the door, not waiting for her sister's response.

Patrick bowed his head, listening as Rhuben and Sydney left the room. Noah sat down on Patrick's right side and Riley sat down on his left. He focused on his bloody hands. He sucked in a deep, shuddery breath, and then tears started to silently fall down his cheeks. Riley reached up and started to run her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. It was relaxing, but it didn't help much. Noah leaned over and rested his head on Patrick's shoulder.

Patrick murmured something.

"What?" Riley leaned forward to hear him.

"They took my necklace."

* * *

**A/N: **Hmm, doing other pairings while the story is in Katie's POV I've found to be difficult. Especially since she spends most of her time with Patrick, Noah, Sydney, and Lizzie. However, with my idea for another Patie story as well as the possible sequel to this, I'll probably have a better way of doing that.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	12. Such A Boy

**.:Chapter 12:.**

* * *

Patrick huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes moved around the pale white room, taking in everything that was crammed in what could be considered an oversized cubicle. His fingers twitched, itching for him to be able to do something, to get out of there and do something. He sighed, gazing down at his sprained ankle as it was elevated on a stack of pillows.

"There goes performing for a while," Patrick muttered. He tilted his head back so that it rested on the wall behind him. "Ronan's gonna be really pissed."

"Pissed, probably not, disappointed, yeah," Riley said as she walked into his hospital room, holding onto a vase filled with flowers. She walked over to the table that was sitting by his bed and placed the flowers on top, arranging them before turning to her brother. "We have to go home in a few minutes, but I wanted to come back and see how you were doing." She grimaced. "Your face has definitely looked better."

"I have enough scars on my face, what's a couple more?" Patrick shrugged before bringing his left hand up to his face to feel the stitches that were in his eyebrow. He let out a sigh through his nose, dropping his arm. His ribs twinged at the movement, he could feel a muscle start to spasm. Thankfully they were severely bruised and not broken. He had broken bones before; it didn't feel like he was at that point. Riley chuckled, resting her hands on the bar at the side of his bed.

Patrick glanced at her. He licked his lips for a moment before opening his mouth to ask the question he had wanted to ask since he got there. For four days he had been lying in bed not being able to do anything but lie there and stare at the ceiling. His friends had all come to see him, to see if he was ok, but Katie hadn't. He wondered what they had been told; surprised that Kendall didn't threaten his life. He would have if he knew the kind of danger that Patrick had put Katie in.

"What're you thinking about?" Riley's eyes narrowed. "I can see the gears turning in your head." She smirked at him. "You don't think a lot, so it's kind of a giveaway when you do."

Patrick smiled. It faded a minute later. He as so confused, other people…they could call him stupid, say that he was nothing but a punk, that his persona was what he was really like. He never felt that way, with his brothers and sisters he never felt that way…under everyone else he did. But it didn't matter what anyone else thought of him, there were only two people's opinions that he cared about and they couldn't give it to him.

"Why didn't you yell at me?" Patrick pulled himself up higher against his pillows. He rested his hands on his stomach, looking directly in his eldest sister's eyes. "Rhu _never_ yells at me unless I piss her off enough as fun as that is." He twiddled his thumbs. The itchy coarseness of his blankets reminded him that he was in the hospital and not at home. That he was stuck in a place he absolutely hated everything about "You always do. Why didn't you yell at me this time?"

Riley was quiet for a moment. "Because I finally realized that I don't need to protect you," she said. Reaching up a hand, she scratched her forehead. "And that yelling at you for doing something stupid wouldn't help you. You already knew that what you did was stupid; you didn't need to hear it from me. Do you really think I don't know what happened? Yes, it's possible that someone could have beaten you up, but I know you. You wouldn't let them do it so easily. All of the bruising and stuff that you have…it wasn't because you were in a fight; it was because you were trying to keep Katie from getting hurt."

"How d'you know that?" Patrick's eyebrows lowered.

"Because you care too much about your face," Riley joked. She turned serious once more. "Because it's the same thing that Rhu and I did." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Were you trying to prove that to us?"

"No," Patrick said honestly. "I was trying to prove it to Mum and Dad."

"They're dead."

"Thanks, I hadn't noticed." Patrick shook his head. "I mean…I want to be seen as…I don't know, a man, I guess in their eyes. Like, I was waiting for some sign that they're proud of me or something. I kept looking for that sign…" he bowed his head. "Maybe I should have gone to see Angelo after all."

"Maybe," Riley agreed. "All of us could tell you to, but you wouldn't until you were sure that it was right for you."

"Maybe." Patrick sucked his lips into his mouth. He slouched down as far as he could without his leg becoming cramped and stared at the ceiling. Now that he had that out of the way, he just had one more thing to do.

* * *

Katie drew circles in her notebook, resting her chin in her free hand. She glumly stared at the page then dropped the pencil. Frowning, she grabbed her notebook and ripped out the sheet of paper, balling it in her fist and throwing it to the end of her bed. Sighing heavily, she scooted back against the headboard and brought her knees up. Hugging a pillow to her chest, Katie leaned forward, resting her chin on her knees. She didn't know what to do. She had avoided going to the hospital due to the pressure, knowing that she was going to have to spill everything if she did so. From what she could tell, the story was that he had just gotten jumped on the way home. He stuck to his word, saying that he was the only one that knew that anything was going on.

He cleared her of her involvement with getting away. She could not understand for the life of her, how none of the guy s had noticed the bruising on her neck or hands when she had gotten home, or the small amount of blood that Patrick had dripped on her, but they didn't. She eventually ended up covering everything with make-up and did her best not to wince or cry out in pain whenever one of the guys would grab her in a hug or when she would go to Kendall's room to sleep in his bed. She hadn't been sleeping properly either; she had bad dreams every now and then. It was starting to really get to her.

She knew she should tell someone, so she wouldn't have to deal with everything herself, but she had promised Patrick that she wouldn't and she was going to keep that promise. So what if it drove her crazy? He was her friend and she was going to help him the best way she could. Katie sighed. _Wow, now I understand how the guys felt. _She closed her eyes, feeling the tears well up. She forced them away, trying to hold her head high in pained silence, in a desperate bid to control her emotions. In the back of her mind, she knew it was her fault, knew that things wouldn't have ended the way it did if she tried to prevent it. She had been too trusting, too innocent, thinking that things would fix themselves on their own.

He was too chaotic, he had come into her world with a whirlwind of color, bring into her life chaotic friendship filled with smiles and laughter and a piece of life that she barely understood but had gone through herself. She believed that he was someone that was happy with his job and his band that he was one of the happiest people she could ever meet, so much so that it was a bit unnerving when she first met him.

He had them all fooled.

_You're stronger than this, Katie. You've dealt with harder things than this before. _Katie leaned forward, resting her forehead on her knees, her face in the pillow. _But then you'd talk to Kendall about it and you can't do that now. _Katie got up from her bed and walked over to her mirror. She lightly traced her hand over her neck, where the arm had been pressed against her, cutting off her air flow. She slowly smiled at the memory of leaning forward and sinking her teeth into the guy's arm. After finally being able to move, she had beaten up the other two guys, giving them a taste of their own medicine.

_They only wanted to scare him…that was definitely scary. _Katie shoved her hands into her jeans pockets and when her hand collided with what was in there, she finally made up her mind. Sucking in a deep breath, she wiped at her eyes and rolled her shoulders back, feeling confident. She could do this. It was fine, she could handle herself. If she didn't do it now, she was never going to do it. Katie took another deep breath and left her room, walking over to her Mom as she sat on the couch, reading the newspaper. She had never been happier to know that the apartment was empty, usually she preferred when the guys were around, so that she always had someone to hang out with.

"Mom," she said, getting her attention. "Can you drive me to the hospital?"

Mrs. Knight looked surprised for a moment. Putting her newspaper aside, she patted the cushion next to her and Katie slowly sat down. "What made you change your mind?"

Katie shrugged before rubbing the back of her neck. Leaning back into the couch, she shrugged again. It was hard to talk about things like his in general, why did she have to have a reason to do anything? Couldn't she just do something because she felt like it? Why did everything always have to turn back to the fact that she had gone out with Patrick once, liked spending time with him…and wouldn't mind being able to call him her boyfriend…?

Mrs. Knight seemed to read her mind. "It's important because finding someone to spend time with, a special someone, is what a lot of people look for." Katie looked at her. "And as cheesy as it is to say, and considering how much I know you're going to hate me saying this, you're miserable without being able to hang out him."

"I'm not miserable-"

"You haven't left your room in almost a week, sweetie." Mrs. Knight put her arm around her daughter's shoulders and gave her a hug. "If that's not miserable, I don't know what is." Katie wondered if she really knew what had gone on at the playground that day. She wouldn't put it past her; Mrs. Knight was always that smart and one step ahead of everyone before they could even do what they were thinking. Her smarts and good advice helped.

"Miserable is when Carlos had to give up his old hockey helmet to get his new one," Katie said. "Remember? He didn't come out of his funk for almost two weeks, wouldn't even eat a single corn dog, and the guys had to basically drag him everywhere." She started to count off on her fingers. "Then there's when Kendall broke up with Jo and how pathetic he became after that. Then James-"

"I get your point," Mrs. Knight interrupted. She smiled down at Katie and gave her a kiss on the side of her head. "I'll go get my keys."

"Thanks." Katie waited for her mother to leave the room before reaching up a hand and wiping off her cheek. Her gaze lowered to the floor, her fingers pausing, mid-wipe. She gave a small smile, dropping her hand to her side. Mrs. Knight came back out of their room and the two left the PalmWoods and headed towards the hospital. Mrs. Knight didn't ask any questions or try to talk to her on the way and that was just fine with her, she didn't really know what to say either.

_What's he gonna say when he sees me? What should I say to him? Was this a bad idea? I knew I shouldn't have come. What if he doesn't want to see me? Do I really want to see him? What-_

"Katie!"

"What?" She turned to her mother.

"We're here."

"Oh," Katie said. She didn't move, suddenly aware that the car was off. They probably had been sitting there for a while.

"Do you want me to go in-"

"No!" Mrs. Knight looked surprised and Katie quickly tried to appease her. "I mean no thanks. It's not going to take long. I'll just be in and out." She still didn't move. Katie looked out the window and up at the hospital. Ignoring her mother's look, she opened the car door and got out. Brushing her hair behind her shoulders, she walked through the front door and up to the receptionist's desk. Feigning as much confidence as she could muster, she asked where Patrick's room was, and then headed off in the direction that she was told.

She paused outside the room, quickly straightened her hair and clothes, and grabbed onto the doorknob. She waited another second before opened the door and walking inside. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed Patrick move his hands behind his back, eyes wide as if he had just been caught. He relaxed when he saw that it was her. "Sorry, I should have knocked."

"No worries." Patrick moved his hands out from behind his back, revealing a McDonalds burger in his hands. "I'm just trying to finish this before my nurse comes back." He rolled his eyes. "Apparently they think the crap they have here is actually good. That's a lie. I could even cook better than this and I suck at it."

"I'll keep lookout then," Katie offered. She walked closer to his bed as a silence filled the room. "How're you feeling?"

"Fine apart from the sprains, bruises and stitching in my beautiful face," Patrick said, through a full mouth. Katie rolled her eyes. "I'm going to be on crutches for a while, though."

"That sucks." Katie frowned sympathetically.

"No worries, I'm used to it." Patrick finished his burger and wiped off his fingers on a napkin. "Besides, it gives me a lot more attention with the ladies." He laughed and Katie reached out, punching him on the arm. "Ow! Geez, watch it! Guy in a hospital bed here!" He gave her a peaceful smile. "How're _you_?" Katie thought about saying that she was fine and that everything was ok, but she knew from the way that he was looking at her, patiently and filled with concern, that he knew exactly how she was feeling. "You don't have to be scared."

"I'm not trying to be," Katie admitted. "But I keep thinking…maybe this wouldn't have happened if I said something earlier."

"Maybe," Patrick agreed. "But we'll never know now. Don't dwell on it." He reached out and patted the bed. Katie shuffled over and pulled herself up, sitting on the end of the bed by his feet. She glanced at his taped ankle, noticing a bit of swelling that oozed through the bandages around his ankle and foot, keeping him in place. He peered at her. "I don't blame you, if that's what you're wondering."

_I hate it when they do that. _Katie dug her finger into the blanket that was covering him. Feeling his eyes on her, she looked up and he smiled. She looked away from him. "Don't smile at me like that!"

"Like what?" His smile widened.

"Like…_that_! It's creepy!" She turned back to him, trying to look as intimidating as possible. "And it really just proves that you spend too much time with James."

"I don't think that two very attractive guys hanging out with each other is a bad thing," Patrick defended himself. He leaned forward and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek, making her blush. "I don't think that's a bad thing either. But I wasn't sure if you would get pissed if I tried."

"No, it's uh…its fine." Katie put her hands into her jeans pockets. "Oh!" Katie pulled her right hand out and grabbed onto Patrick's hand. She pulled it out, stretching out the fingers and dropped his lightning bolt necklace inside. "That belongs to you." She studied the stunned expression on his face. His mouth dropped open, his eyes were wide behind his glasses, he tried to speak but no words came out of his mouth. "Your parents gave you that, right?" He nodded. "I kinda figured after you freaked out so much over him taking it. And the rest of you guys had specific ones too, so…so I got it back."

"How?" Patrick finally found his voice.

Katie gave a mysterious smile. "Ah, let's just say that I know about two or three guys that will want to turn and run the other way when they see me coming." She laughed then self consciously tucked her hair behind her ear. "Um, back then…why did you yell at me like that?" She frowned. "You really scared me."

Patrick shrugged. "I don't know, to be honest," he said. "It's hard to explain."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Katie said quickly. "I'm just glad that you don't hate me."

"I could never hate you, Katie." A comfortable silence fell between the two of them as they smiled at each other.

"Well, I guess I better get going. Mom's waiting for me." She looked down at his hand and grabbed it, cupping her hands around his. "I'm glad you're feeling better." She smiled at him and jumped down from his bed, starting to walk away.

All of a sudden, she walked into something. _What the? _Looking down, Katie noticed that part of a crutch had been extended and was keeping her from moving forward. _Huh?_ Katie turned around to see Patrick holding onto the handle of the crutch and had maneuvered it in front of her. Laughing, Katie turned back to him. "Why are you so desperate?"

"Because I like female companionship," Patrick replied. He put a hand by his mouth and continued in a stage whisper, "And my nurse is kinda butch, so I need someone cute around me."

"You're such a…such a…" Katie shook her head, trying to find the words that would describe him. She smiled, realizing that there was no good word that could describe him. "Such a boy."

Patrick smiled.

* * *

**THE END**

* * *

**A/N: **I didn't originally have this story end soon, but I realized that after the last chapter, there wasn't much more to do with it. So, yeah, it was kind of blindsiding, but I prefer to have it where my readers don't know when a story is going to end, that way their reaction would be more genuine.

There's still an epilogue, though, so look out for that. More things would be explained then; what Kendall's reaction will be when he finds out, how Katie got Patrick's necklace, moments with Katie and Logan and Carlos, why Patrick yelled at Katie, a small bit with Jo…

But yeah, first Patie story is done. What I really like about it was that it's my first story where the couple didn't actually kiss and I focused on her not knowing how to start dating someone more than anything. I'm sure that you all would have liked to see a proper kiss, but I like it this way. Thanks for all of the support on this story; I'm glad that you guys liked it. It was fun to write.

Cheers,

-Riles


	13. Epilogue

**.:Epilogue:.**

* * *

Katie stepped out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. She stepped to the side and allowed everyone to get off the elevator before walking over towards the office that was at the end of the hall. She reached out and knocked on the door before opening it and hesitantly step inside, allowing the door to swing shut behind her.

"Hold the door! Hold the-"

Katie jumped and whirled around, holding her hands over her mouth before laughing a little. Patrick, using his left hand to rub at a spot on his forehead, balanced on his left crutch, using his right hand to open the office door behind her. He hobbled inside, being careful not to drop his crutches to the ground. "Are you trying to kill me or something?"

"I thought you were right behind me!" Katie explained through her laughter. "I'm sorry." Patrick shot her a mixture of a playful and an impatient look, replacing the rubber ends of his crutches on the floor. He swung his body forward and led the way into another inner office and up to a receptionist's desk. "Hey Rosie, I'm here to see Angel," he said.

"He's expecting you, Patrick, go ahead." The middle-aged woman smiled at him and Katie followed him to a corner office. Patrick hopped on his left foot, moving his crutches to his right hand, and grabbed onto the door handle, backing up so that Katie could go through first. He flashed her a warm smile.

Katie blushed.

No one held the door open for her before; it always seemed like a boyfriend-girlfriend thing to her. Sure, Kendall would hold open the door for her and their Mom if they ever went anywhere, but their Mom had made sure that Kendall was brought up to respect women, so that wasn't a big deal. James did it too, but he always tried to make a good impression and despite his image, he was someone that knew that girls deserved to be treated with respect. Logan and Carlos, from what she could understand, weren't exactly hip to the ways of dating (Camille and Stephanie being their first girlfriends respectively as well as them not being as confident with girls as Kendall and James were) and did some things wrong at the beginning, but now practiced the same ideas that Kendall and James did.

It was funny though, to see how they acted around girls compared to Patrick, Noah, Sydney, and Ronan. They all did the same thing, holding open doors, and allowing the girls to pass by first, but they even went as far as to stand up whenever a girl approached the table to join them, as well as pulling back their chair and pushing them in. There were a lot of things that Katie still didn't understand about what you were supposed to do when you were dating. She wasn't even Patrick's girlfriend so to speak, not that she was aware of anyway. Were you automatically boyfriend and girlfriend after one date? They've only been on the one date so far and then she watched as he got beat up. And since he's been back from the hospital, they've only really done homework together and she listened as he complained about how his brothers and sisters could go to the beach and have fun, and all he could do was just sit on the sand and eat.

"Well, the eating part isn't that bad is it?" Katie teased.

Patrick smiled. "Not really, that's cool." But then he placed a hand on his stomach. "I'm going to have to do a lot of ab workouts than usual, though."

Katie had rolled her eyes and changed the subject.

Now here she was, standing outside of Dr. Taylor Angelo's office, being his guest as he went in for a therapy session .She had no idea what to expect, what they were going to talk about. What did anyone talk about when they went into a therapy session? She had heard bits and pieces about it whenever the Jacksons would volunteer the information, otherwise, they never talked about it and no one asked.

"Thanks." Katie smiled and stepped through the open door as Patrick continued to hold it open for her.

"Don't flatter yourself," Patrick said as he hobbled in after her. "I was just making sure that you didn't bash me in the head again." Katie frowned and punched him on the arm, as Patrick laughed, trying to lean out of the way.

"Even I know that you can treat girls better than that," Dr. Angelo said, sounding a bit disappointed from where he was sitting behind his desk. He got a good look at Patrick's face and then shook his head. "Did you go bungee jumping or did you just run head first into a wall? Either way, I wouldn't be surprised."

"You know me, I can't sit still for too long," Patrick replied. He crutched over to a chair and sat down. Katie walked over to the other one and hesitantly sat down as well. "Why do you think I go to the gym so much?"

"Because you like to sweat," Dr. Angelo replied with a slight shrug. Patrick smiled. Katie laughed a little, surprised. She expected a therapist to just sit there, nod, and say 'how does that make you feel'? Just like she had seen on TV, but he seemed to care more about the way that he related to him than anything else. She got a good vibe off of him. "So why don't you tell me what's been going on? You've missed a lot of session that we've had planned."

Katie sat back in her seat, listening, feeling a bit like an outsider. _He invited you for a reason, Katie, don't worry about it._

Patrick rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry about that, mate, I just felt like-"

"Like you could handle things on your own?" Dr. Angel interrupted. He gave a slight roll of his eyes. "Not surprising in the slightest, all of you feel that way from time to time, as I've noticed with working with you." He leaned forward in his seat, resting his arms on the table. "Now, Ronan's told me that he brought up a concern that, quite frankly, I've had too, though now it makes sense. He said that he doesn't understand why you all don't help each other when you're all going through the same thing."

"Yes, sir," Patrick said with a nod.

"And I think it goes back to you not wanting to burden each other, considering. And that's why you all want to try and keep doing things on your own. But I want you to try opening up more with your problems. I know that Noah tried to help you out with what you were doing and the others by keeping it all a secret from Ronan, but that wasn't helping, that was just sweeping everything under the rug. Please, promise me that you'll tell your siblings this part of the conversation and start helping each other, I know that all of you will be happier that way."

"Sure." Patrick nodded again.

_I guess I never really noticed_, Katie thought. _They're always so busy helping the guys or the rest of us with our problems…they're so busy focusing on others instead of themselves that they don't know how to help each other, because they don't want people to worry about them._

"Kates?"

Katie lifted her head, hearing her name called. She looked over at Patrick and he nodded towards Dr. Angelo. Katie's gaze shifted over to the older man and lifted her head, waiting for him to speak to her. He gave her a warm smile, calming her down.

"Relax, I just want to talk to you," he said. "This is the first time you've ever been to something like this, right?" Silently, Katie nodded. "Well, no one's going to know anything that you've said, besides the people that are in here. So if you don't want anyone else to find out, then they won't find out." He clasped his hands together. "Would you…like to explain what's been happening?"

Katie didn't know where to start. There were a lot of things that she wanted to say, but wasn't sure what she should say. He said that they could talk about anything and that no one else would know about what was said. But still, it was nerve wracking. "Um." She licked her lips. "I guess I don't really understand what was it that made this whole thing start."

"My Dad's birthday is coming up," Patrick said, as soon as the last word had come out of her mouth. Katie realized that he had been expecting it at some point. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was staring straight ahead, his eyes narrowed a little. "Not Ronan's, my real Dad's I mean." He leaned forward, rubbing his forehead before sniffing loudly. "And…that always makes me kind of angry for obvious reasons. But also for the fact that it doesn't seem to bother anyone else. We don't celebrate it or Mom's and I think we should, like, even if they're not around, we can still have a cake and have fun, right?" He lowered his gaze, now starting to mumble. "I thought that everyone will think it was a stupid idea, so…"

"So you started to get into fights over that?" Katie raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, I don't get that."

"I got into fights because I wanted to be able to do something to release my frustration." Patrick sucked his snake bites into his mouth. Katie watched the movement and when she realized what she was doing, she blushed and looked away. _Geez Katie, get it together. _Patrick smirked, as if he knew what she was thinking, causing her to blush even harder. Her eyes darted over to Dr. Angelo, but he didn't seem to be judging her or anything. So that was good. "After a while of hitting a punching bag…you get kind of bored because it doesn't hit back. So…" He shrugged again and tried to cross his legs, but with his foot still wrapped up, it was difficult. "It wasn't hard to find people that wanted to fight…there are boys like that all over the place and, like they showed, they really liked the chance to beat up a 'celebrity'." He gave a bitter laugh.

"You know that it wasn't the best way to go about your problems, so I'm not going to tell you that," Dr. Angelo said. He smiled when Patrick snorted. "Yeah, I did it in a roundabout way, what're you going to do about it?"

"I've got crutches, dude, don't make me use em'," Patrick threatened. The two laughed then Dr. Angelo turned back to Katie once more.

"So you've been brought into this as well," he said slowly. "How did that first come about? Because I can't imagine him walking up to you and saying 'Hey, do you want to come watch me beat people up?'." He bobbed his head back and forth. "Actually, knowing him, I can see him doing that, wanting to impress the ladies and all, but not _exactly_ in that way."

"Thanks." Patrick raised an eyebrow.

"Umm." Katie scratched the back of her neck. "It was sort of like that…actually, I wasn't even supposed to know about it."

She had been walking back to the PalmWoods from the bus stop one day, after hanging out with Lizzie at the country club. Katie was not a fan of the snooty atmosphere; she could feel everyone looking at her like she was crazy; from the tip of her ponytail down to the flip flops on her feet. But she did have a good time hanging out with her best friend and being able to cheat some of them out of their money, but she needed some time in the PalmWoods, to hang out with the guys and to just get into some sort of trouble. Walking towards the PalmWoods Park, she could see a commotion going on at the edge of the Park and headed over. As she went, she could hear the sound of punches being thrown and gasps and cheers from a crowd that had formed. Pushing her way through, Katie was only slightly surprised to see Patrick backing in the ring in a circle, a smile on his face as a bloodied teenage guy was doing his best to try and land a hit on Patrick.

As he continued around the ring, Patrick seemed to notice her and stumbled for a bit, allowing the guy to land a blow on his arm. Patrick scowled, looking as if the guy was an insignificant bug and landed an elbow to his face. The other guy fell to the ground and laid there for a long while. Finally, Patrick reached over and grasped his hand, lifting him to his feet.

"Good job," he said, slapping him on the shoulder. "Nice try." He held out his hand. Katie watched, in confusion, as the guy slipped him a couple of dollar bills before wiping off his face and walking off. The crowd dispersed and Katie hesitantly walked over to him.

"If you were so strapped for cash, why didn't you just ask me?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "You know that I pretty much do my family's bills and that I've got everyone at the PalmWoods wrapped around my finger."

"If I was strapped for cash, you'd be the last person that I'd ask," Patrick said honestly. Katie frowned, did he mean that to be as mean as it sounded. He continued, answering her question. "Only because I know that you'd try to find some way to get some money off the top. And because you're cute I may fall for it, so I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to decline."

"Idiot." Katie crossed her arms over her chest. "So what're you doing?" Her eyes widened a little as Patrick leaned towards her, his face dropping the constant jovial mask and descending into a somber one replaced it.

"Keep a secret?" He asked.

And things had snowballed from there. Katie learned that it was like a mini fight club, a bunch of guys that wanted to see if they were as strong as they thought. They had been fighting each other for a while at the PalmWoods Park, but decided to move it to a playground so that they wouldn't get harassed by Bitters. Katie also learned, as time went on, that they started to up the stakes and gambled their prized possessions in a way to show that they have beaten their opponents, kind of like a badge of honor. She still didn't really understand it, no matter how many times he explained it to her. Time after time he would ask if she would go to support him. Sometimes Noah would be there, sometimes he wouldn't be, but she always went. Yeah, in a way to spend some time with him, she understood what the guys meant when they were running out to hang out with their friends by themselves or individually so much.

However, she didn't completely agree with what he was doing and there were times that she tried to talk him out of it, which never really worked.

"Why did you yell at me?" She asked Patrick, instead of speaking to Dr. Angelo. He made a sound of surprise. "The last time…why did you yell at me? I was just trying to help you." She then pouted and before stopping herself, added, "I bet you wouldn't have yelled at Jo."

Patrick gave a bark of laughter. "I wouldn't yell at Jo because I wouldn't care," he said bluntly. Then winced. "I didn't mean that be as rude as it sounded."

"What did you mean, then?" Dr. Angelo pressed.

"I _mean_…" Patrick licked his lips. "I mean that I wouldn't particularly care about what she thought about it. I would, as a friend; it wouldn't have as big of an effect of me. Because…I care what you think of me, which is kind of stupid, and I know that I usually ignored your concerns with what I was doing. But when you tried _so _hard to get me to stop…I was just overwhelmed."

"So it has nothing to do with you liking her?" Katie pressed. She needed to know for sure. "You still like her right?"

Patrick gave her a funny look. "You know she's going out with James, yeah?"

Katie blinked in surprise. She barely noticed what most of the guys did in their relationships, which, in retrospect, explained why she was the last to know that Logan and Camille had broken up again. When did that happen? She was so confused. Why did dating have to be so confusing? Katie shrugged, instead of answering him.

"How'd you get my necklace anyway?" Patrick turned to fully face her. He reached a hand up to his chest and she knew that he was pressing the lightning bolts to his chest, to be sure that it was still there. "I don't think that Derrick would have been so willing to give it away."

Katie slowly smiled. The couple of days before she had gone to the hospital to visit him, she had tracked down Jared and asked if he knew where Derrick was. Jared had hesitated in telling her for a long time, not sure what was going to happen, but Katie had been confident, she knew what she was doing. Jared pointed her down to the beach and she hopped on the bus and when she arrived, she immediately went over to Derrick and his friends, who were talking and laughing with each other at a lifeguard stand. When they saw her approaching, Derrick addressed her.

"Did you leave your boyfriend now that he's not the op dog anymore?" He asked, giving her a cruel smile.

Katie's eyes were glued to the necklace around his neck. "No," she said and pointed at him. "I want that necklace back. It's his, not yours."

Derrick gave a cruel laugh. "You think that I'm just going to give his back to you? No chance in hell!" He waved her off. "Now leave us alone. You're looking for trouble if you stick around here." He started to turn his back on her and Katie grabbed onto his wrist. Surprised, he turned back to face her, and then smiled. "Or is it that you want a piece of me?" He winked at her and his friends laughed, mumbled of laughter.

Katie immediately yanked her arm away from him. "I want nothing to do with you. I want that necklace!"

"You're not getting it! It's mine now."

"Last chance."

"What are you going to do, bitch?" Derrick finally lost his patience. "Does your boyfriend really need you to protect him?"

Katie pulled her arm back and punched him in the face before driving her fist straight into his guy with all of her weight and momentum behind it. Derrick's face paled and a low moan escaped his mouth before he sank to his knees. Katie took the opportunity to take the necklace from him; he didn't try to stop her. She knew it would work, due to her boxing training, she knew that a hit to the abdomen, if the other person didn't have the core strength to protect them. She put the necklace in her pocket and with one last glance at Derrick's friends, she walked away. She knew she wasn't in any danger of them coming after her. Who would want to have that on their conscious…beating up a girl…

It was just as bad as getting beat by one yourself…

"Remind me never to get into a fight with you," Patrick said, slightly moving away from her. Katie rolled her eyes.

"Relax, I'm harmless," Katie said. "And if Mom found out that I got into a fight, she'd kill me. She's only letting me take boxing classes because I won't do ballet or anything else." She shrugged. "Plus, I think she's proud that I can take care of myself." She smiled to herself. After she had gotten back from getting the necklace from Derrick, Carlos and Logan had tried, once again, to find out what happened on hers and Patrick's date. They continued to beg and plead and even going as far as to demand to know what went on. Katie decided to use the adrenaline that was still in her body and beat them with pillows until they promised that they would stop asking her what happened.

"I can see that." Dr. Angelo rubbed his eyes. "Patrick, since we only had a half hour today, and there's still a lot we need to talk about, I'm going to schedule an hour session for next week, alright?" Patrick nodded and he finalized an appointment for the next week before he and Katie left the office building. He made sure that he continued to hold the door open for her giving her a smirk each time she gave him a tiny glare.

They caught the bus and rode back to the PalmWoods in comfortable silence. Patrick didn't speak again until they were on their way up to the crib. "Katie, you'd say that you have a really great relationship with your brother right?" Katie gave him a funny look. Had he not been there for the past two years when they had all been friends? She knew that he could be a bit slow, but not _this_ stupid. "'Cause I was planning on telling him everything that's been going on."

Katie stopped walking. "You can't be serious."

"He has to know, Katie," Patrick said. "I don't feel right leaving him out of what's been going on."

"You don't have to." Katie caught up to him again. "I'm OK. The guy didn't hurt me too badly and they didn't even when I came back with your blood on me. I covered the bruises…" she trailed off. "You know, I'm starting to sound like you."

Patrick smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek before going into the apartment. Kendall was sitting at the counter, on his laptop and greeted them warmly when they entered. Katie watched, hovering by the door as Patrick walked over and started to explain everything that happened from when he started to get into fights, when Katie had been brought in, how long it had been going on, and when she had gotten hurt. He apologized profusely, but even Katie could see that Kendall was getting upset. His face turned hard and his eyes flashed. When Patrick finished, he waited for Kendall to say something, backing away when Kendall got to his feet.

"Y-you wouldn't hit a guy on crutches would you?" Patrick eyed him warily. Katie could tell that he was legitimately scared about what was going to happen.

"Guess again," Kendall said. "How could you put her in danger like that!? She could have been really hurt!" Patrick lowered his eyes. "Have you ever thought about how dangerous that could be?!"

"Kendall!" Katie protested.

"I know and I'm sorry," Patrick said. "I was just…too caught up with myself and my problems. I should have been taking better care of her. It won't happen again." Kendall continued to glare. "I don't blame you if you don't trust me after this."

"I didn't say that," Kendall snapped. He ran a hand over his mouth, his hands clenching into fists. "What you did was really stupid."

"I know," Patrick agreed.

Katie's eyebrows lowered. _He hates it when someone calls him stupid, so would…_Katie glanced at her brother and then understood. He was listening to what he had to say because he cared what Kendall thought. While Julius wasn't around, he had the older boys to look up to as a big brother figure. _He's more complicated than I thought._

"Kendall, I'm ok," Katie said walking over to the two. "Don't worry about me; I can take care of myself."

Kendall glanced at her before looking at Patrick once more. "You mean he can take care of you, whenever I can't," he finally said. Patrick smiled a little and Kendall smiled back, though Katie could still see the worry in his face.

"I'll do my best," Patrick promised. He then shrugged. "You know, when I'm not too busy making out with her."

Katie's face had never turned so red in her entire life; she wanted the ground to swallow her up. Though knowing that he _did _want to kiss her made her happy, having to hear it in front of her brother was mortifying. Kendall seemed to have the same thought, as he gave Patrick a withering look, warning him to run.

"I was kidding!" Patrick feebly tried to move away from the counter, going as fast as his crutches could take him. He yelped when Kendall headed over to the couch to grab a pillow and moved faster towards the door. "Kendall, I was kidding!"

Katie laughed.

* * *

**A/N: **I decided to do _Do It All Again_ one more time as a sequel to this. It'll take a bit to be put up though. Thanks everyone, I really enjoyed writing this story!

-Riles


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